Letters to Reimu
by Another Man
Summary: Reimu was killed in her defeat to Usutho, allowing the raven to conquer Gensokyo. The result was an irradiated world, incapable of supporting lifeforms. Only through Yukari's gap, the rest of the cast found themselves among us, and finally dawned onto them of the late miko's selfless sacrifices to protect the Gensokyo she loved. Pretty dark work. AU OOC modern day Earth
1. A Puppeteer's Wish

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

**"Letters To Reimu" is a series of handwritten letters by the populace of Gensokyo, in honor of her sacrifice, while living out their remaining broken lives in the modern-day Outer World. This story is set some years after a fictional ending of the Subterranean Animism, where Reimu Hakurei was defeated and actually killed by Reiuji Usutho, allowing the nuclear hell raven to succeed in conquering the world of Gensokyo.**

**The result was an irradiated Gensokyo. With surface, water, underground and air tainted with dangerous radiation, Yukari Yakumo had given the order for the populace to evacuate, moving through a gap to the only world she had found hospitable; our world, Earth. Most of the cast survived Usutho's onslaughts, but nobody had ever managed to recover the Hakurei Miko's broken body from Former Hell. After everybody had slipped through the gap to Earth, Yukari had sealed off Gensokyo, leaving only Usutho to her lonely self and, if ever possible, Reimu's corpse in her final resting place.**

**Each chapter consists of how a member of the cast lives through his/her daily life in a new environment and a somewhat soul-reaching letter to the miko whom they would never get to meet again.**

**Story title inspired by "Letters from Iwo Jima", but has no other reference to the film or actual event.**

**Information regarding radiation in this story should NOT be referenced for official uses. They are, by large, inaccurate and do not depict the actual procedures for treatment and control.**

* * *

"Hmm," the young girl brought up the broken doll for a closer inspection. "It isn't really broken, you know?"

"It is broken!" the much younger girl insisted, stamping her feet lightly on the ground. "Mimi would not speak with me any longer! You gotta help me, Alice!"

"Sure, sure, just let me figure out what's wrong."

Alice Margatroid took a screwdriver and loosened the screws holding the battery pack in place. Removing the old batteries, she replaced them with some of her own and tightened the screws up again. "It must have been due to weak batteries."

The little girl pressed a button on the back of the doll, which suddenly sprang to life. Thanking the doll master, she quickly left the apartment which doubled as Alice's abode and repair shop. Sighing again as she wrapped up a charity job for the small girl, Alice got back to sewing new clothes for her personal collection of dolls.

The Outer World, or Earth as it was known as, was somewhat similar to Gensokyo, except the populace of Earth was extremely advanced in technology. Magic was almost nonexistent and automation was an everyday concession most of the populace took granted for. Gensokyo's populace, which had secretly integrated themselves with the humans, found themselves stripped of their magical powers, only to be left as strong, or weak in some cases, as the next human they could find anywhere.

In Alice's case, she found herself no longer able to maintain a spiritual connection between her dolls. It was as if those dolls were made for either display or ventriloquism, which required physical strings to be attached. However, adapting to her new environment, she had studied the ways of electronics and was finally able to automate her first and favorite doll, Shanghai.

The same doll now shuffled on stiff limbs with a tray in hand, placing it with robotic stiffness on the table where Alice sat. The former Seven Colored Puppeteer Youkai, over the past three years, had felt her human side returning, and slowly noticed herself aging. On the tray were medicines of different types; Alice picked out a glass bottle of pills labeled 'XYZ Iodine' and popped two of its contents into her mouth, washing them down her throat with a glass of water already available on the tray.

Shanghai proceeded to pulling the roller chair away from the table for her master, allowing Alice to stand up without much difficulty. That action was not needed, but with a little knowledge in programming, the former youkai puppeteer thought it would be a nice touch to a personal home service.

Walking into her bedroom, she took off her garments and inspected herself against the technological marvel known as a mirror. Picking up a bottle of lotion from her vanity table, she began slathering some of the lotion across dark spots on her body. "The results of radiation burns, miss," a doctor had told her. "There's nothing we can do. In every case of prolonged exposure, the victim would already have died, but you are showing some exceptional resistance to radiation. The burns are permanent, I'm afraid, but some lotion may soothe the pain it might cause."

Finishing with the lotion, she returned her clothes onto her body and sat down at the study table. A plastic bag containing a pink envelope with intricate designs covering it and a clean sheet of A4-sized paper sat on the table, along with modern stationery she had purchased from the local stationery shop.

Her mind began wandering back to those happy years in Gensokyo and finally ending, with a quiet sob, with Reimu's unfortunate demise. She hadn't known why she had, one day, decided to write a letter to the miko, whom she knew would never have the chance to read it. _Reimu's probably resting peacefully, she might find us one day in this world and read it._

Tearing the packaging aside, she began writing the characters of Reimu's full name on the envelope. While every blank was filled in ink, only the address bar was filled with dark wet stains of tear droplets; Alice could not bring herself to describe the exact address, but neither was it needed; she had no idea on how to deliver the letter to Reimu. _The postman is gonna wonder where exactly Hakurei Shrine is, much less Gensokyo._

Still in her somber mood, she idly doodled random drawings on the envelope itself, adding them to the already well-designed enveloped she had purchased at an expensive price. Another drop of tear had fallen onto where the tip of her pen was, smudging the ink and leaving a black mess on the surface. Realizing she would only make matters worse, Alice placed the envelope aside and gave her full attention to the white piece of paper. She sat at the table for the next few hours, missing out on dinner and even sleep.

* * *

_Dear Reimu_

_Words cannot describe the pain I felt when you left me. Alone. I'm having a hard time coping without you, even as I write this, I'm still trying to live on without your presence, your everyday lonesome self who watched over Gensokyo._

_I can never forget the very first time you beat me into the ground, and then left me to fend for myself as you continued on with your mission. I swore to myself never to forgive you if we ever met again, and years later, we did. Training hard, I was pretty sure I would be on the same level as you, to defeat you and make you suffer like I did then. How wrong was I, you seemed to had already grown exponentially stronger while I only managed a linear improvement._

_Ever since, your living presence at the shrine only served to strengthen my resolve in defeating you in a duel. It was as if you were waiting there, ever so patiently, for my arrival and your own defeat at the hands of a puppeteer. Your days of loneliness served as retribution for kicking and leaving us youkai aside, the lack of donations to your shrine served as a reminder of your evil deeds._

_Us youkai, most of us just want to be youkai, but you have forgotten that a handful of us, myself namely, was once human, just like you are… or were. Your cruel methods in resolving youkai incidents, they irked me, some of which still scares me even today. Although I have not been at the receiving end of your 'exorcisms', my hate for you remained unwavering._

_Marisa came to me one day and told me about her adventures with you as her sidekick, although it's widely known it was the exact opposite. At first, I pretended to listen while maintaining my loathe for you, but as she continued with the stories, something within me began to sympathize with you. It was as if the Reimu I knew was totally different from the Reimu my neighbor had always been talking about. That was also when I started to realize your reasons for carrying out those missions of yours._

_How selfish was I to have thought otherwise; you were shouldering a very heavy burden, one which I would have never been able to hold even for a second. The very existence of Gensokyo was mostly due to your efforts in stamping down incidents that would have destroyed Her. Yukari might be the one who created the world, but you acted as the enforcer, a hero of justice. That had got me thinking, what if one day you decided to ignore a large threat? Would any of my selfish hatred for you solve anything? Would I have been able to step into your shoes and shoulder that responsibility?_

_You were alone in your life mission, Reimu; nobody else could have understood you. Everybody shunned you for your attitude, yet we were foolishly blind to the One Who Saves Gensokyo. All those talks of faith, of magical powers, of time control, they had nothing to do with what you had to accomplish to keep our lives in Gensokyo stable._

_I had realized this, for a fact, only some months before your last mission underground. Those days of me visiting your shrine empty handed while you grudgingly served me tea, they were moments to be cherished. I was resolved to not defeat you in a duel for revenge, but to defeat you to make you realize there were, and still are, people who would gladly support you in your cause, no matter what you had done to us in the past. The purity of our smiles as we chatted through the daylight, it was indeed memorable. When you smiled, you smiled with your heart, and when we left for home, you continued to smile, knowing you had friends after all._

_When you finally decided to investigate the Underground, I knew that I could trust you to do your thing, and then emerge to the surface victorious, yet another day saved thanks to the Hakurei shrine maiden. You saving Gensokyo, it was something we, everybody in Gensokyo, had taken for granted. Little did we know, that was the very last time we would ever cherish the peace we enjoyed over the years under your keen watch._

_Usutho burst from geysers all over the land, burning down and destroying our lives in the span of half a day. Valiant heroes took it up to themselves to attempt to stop She Who Killed The Miko, but had severely underestimated her powers. The massive battles left many dead, and the whole of Gensokyo was irradiated. Yukari, with her knowledge of what radiation might do to us, ordered us to leave Gensokyo, and here I am, in the safety of the Outer World, while your burnt body is still lying somewhere in the Underground, if any of it remained._

_I feel ashamed, Reimu. Ashamed not because I couldn't save you, just like everyone had felt, but ashamed because I did not treasure your presence, right from the beginning. Respect for you was purely out of fear of being sealed away. Deep down within yourself, you knew that too, yet our grudging approval for you did not deter you from attempting this dangerous mission._

_Life in the Outer World, as expected, is completely different from Gensokyo. In the days of the old, the air was fresh from your pure intentions, the grass green and healthy with your protection. Here, we live in air so polluted a rare flower I had grown in my back garden in the Forest of Magic would have wilted quickly enough. Back then, food was easily available, but now I have to work my body to the limits just to gain enough money to survive. Heh, that does sound like what you had experienced before, doesn't it?_

_We did not leave Gensokyo empty handed; everybody brought along a painful reminder of your exploits; radiation poisoning. Fortunately for us, treatment was already available in this world, but at the same time unfortunately, the effects are irreversible. The burns on my body, they will always serve as my punishment for taking you for granted. As I'm writing this, the youkai in me seemed to be diminishing, and the limits of a human are catching up with me. I've lost a lot of weight; my hair is now mostly sitting on the heads of my dolls, my almost-bare scalp only covered by a hat. I don't even know if I will survive past the next decade if this continues._

_Reimu, I have a wish, and I hope it will be granted. I wish to turn the wheels of Time back to the very first time we met. With knowledge of the Future in my hands, I will not repeat my mistakes again. I will make sure nobody makes his or her mistakes again. You are Gensokyo's precious thing, the darling of our world. Please, Reimu, allow me to make amends if this wish is ever granted. I plead to you, on my very existence, that I will never hate you for who you are, ever again._

_Alice Margatroid_

* * *

**A.N.: Okay, I'm going to admit, this is my first attempt at dark genres. If you have been catching on the other fics I have written, they are usually light hearted and contain a lot of humor. However, life is all about a balance, and I thought I should give this a try.**

**I'm not exactly capable of writing those full-length confessions or stories some of you out there seemed to be doing so easily, so you could consider this as a beta. Unlike my other entry, this fic will not be a weekly, only updated when I finish writing something worth putting up. To avoid making too many mistakes, I'm afraid I can only write using characters I'm most familiar with, despite Alice not being one of those on my list. Reviews and comments are appreciated.**


	2. Awakening of the Soul

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

"The library's closing, miss," the man stood over the sleeping girl at a table. "Please come back again tomorrow."

"Uh?" the girl gave him a bleary eye. "It's night already?"

"Yes, miss. It's already ten. Library closes at this timing daily."

"I'm sorry about holding your closing time back."

"Do you want me to place these books under your name?" the librarian asked as he helped stack the many books the girl had left on her table.

"Huh?"

"Do you want to borrow these so you can continue with them at home?" the man repeated his question with clarity. "I have noticed you were reading all of these for the past week that I had to chase you out."

"Uh… how do I go around borrowing these?"

"I would first require your card, then we can proceed to that machine…"

"I… I don't have one."

"Then I'm afraid you have to return tomorrow to continue with these," the librarian carted the books away to return them to the shelves. As he placed the books back on the shelves, he noticed that one of the books was of a different genre from the others.

"Hey, miss!" he called out to the leaving girl, who turned around.

"Hmm?"

"I see that you have interest in occult," he said. "But… why did you pick out this book?" he held out a worn and old-looking book entitled 'Children Fairy Tales'. The book had easily been a century old, if not more. "I'm pretty sure it's way out of your leagues."

The girl said nothing and continued to stand at her spot. "I believe in the existence of a parallel world," she finally broke the silence.

"A fantasy land?"

"Something like that. Do you happen to have heard of one 'Gensokyo'?"

"Imagination Land," he nodded. "A general name for such."

"There exists one," the girl repeated. "And I myself had been there. It was my home for the past hundred years. I may look just as young as the students of this university, but I have aged beyond the mortal's limit. I was the Librarian of the Great Unmoving Library, the _Voile_, boasting the largest library in the whole of Gensokyo. Something happened, we were forced to leave the world, which I called home."

"Ahh… ahh!" the librarian seemed to be faking understanding, but the strange girl saw it through.

"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't believe me," she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I have no ways to prove what that I had say to be true, anyway."

"Is your interest in occult that deep?"

"In layman terms, you could say it's actually magic. I believe in magic."

"Europe's is very rich in art and folklores. You sure are blessed to have came here. With such interests, you could be writing for that occultist column in the daily papers."

"I wouldn't trust those occultists you speak of, they are mostly falsifying information."

"Hence your perfect qualification for the job… _Patchouli Knowledge_."

The girl was taken aback slightly. "How… how did you know my name?"

The librarian held on to the book of fairy tales and stepped towards Patchouli, who took one back. "Relax, I do not seek to harm you," the man tried to placate her, with no visible success; Patchouli already had her back to a shelf filled with books. "This library," the man spread his arms as if to encompass them. "Is older than you are, Miss Knowledge. And there can only be one reason for you to appear here four days ago: fate."

"What… what are you saying?"

"My grandfather, on his death bed, implored to his son, who became my father, to find The Missing Girl of the library."

"Am… I the… Missing Girl?"

"This girl," the man pointed a finger directly at Patchouli. "A hundred years ago, disappeared after reading this very book of fairy tales," he allowed his pointing finger to direct her attention to the book in his other hand. "Literally disappeared. Like 'poof'. Gone, just like that. Nobody knew how it happened. To make matters worse, other children who read the book did not disappear just like she did."

The mysterious librarian strode towards his counter, unlocked a drawer that was out of sight from Patchouli's side and pulled out a worn paper card, which was comparable to the book of fairy tales, and handed it over to her, who immediately received it with both hands and inspected it closely. Her full name was indeed on the card itself, along with her exact date of birth and other personal information.

"Among the belongings of this girl was this identity card. My father had passed this story on to me when I took over the library a couple decades ago," he spoke after a few moments of silence, allowing the revelation of her previous existence on Earth to be fully understood. "If you are truly the Patchouli Knowledge, the Missing Girl of the library, then I must say I have finally fulfilled my job as a successor for the library's ownership."

* * *

"Library's closing, sir," Patchouli lightly tapped on the sleeping student's shoulders, who shrugged her off and sluggishly made his way out of the library, his bag lazily slung over his shoulders, without saying anything. Sighing, she picked the books after him and loaded them onto the trolley.

It was a daily routine for Patchouli. Four years had passed ever since that fateful night, and she found herself working in the very library she had disappeared from some time after. The owner, whom she had mistaken as another librarian, had offered her the position when he found out she was both homeless and jobless with nobody to care for her, and she had gratefully taken it up. _Always glad to have books for company, although this library is smaller than the Voile._

The man had given his full trust in allowing her to stay overnight in the library if she chose to, something Patchouli naturally wanted. After locking the doors of the university's library, she began the laborious task of sorting the books through cataloguing, with the aid of the library's computer, and returning them back to their proper shelves.

_Calculus… that shelf. Illustrated History of False Teeth, dentistry section. Guide to butterflies… Nature Studies shelves. Romeo and Juliet… oh well. I loved this one, it's pretty good. Love story._ _ Oh, this reader had even picked out Hamlet and Othello, a true Shakespearean reader._ Humming a soft tune she had once heard, she continued the task, until she realized the song had been heard in Gensokyo itself.

The sudden realization that she had forgotten all about Gensokyo struck her in the head like a jolt of electricity. To make matters worse, the last book on the trolley that was unsorted was a book on _Nuclear _Physics.

_Nuclear Physics._

_Mystia's song._

_Nuclear… fusion…_

_Gensokyo..._

_… Rei-Reimu-mu…_

The very second after she sputtered out that name, she felt an overwhelming urge to scream out, which she had managed to stifle by covering her mouth desperately with her hands, her eyes already spilling tears freely. The memories of that horrible day, one she had forgotten through her years of work in the library, came crashing back to her like a river to a dam.

* * *

"Now, take a deep breath," the university's homegrown psychiatrist, a doctorate holder in the industry himself, soothed. His patient did as she was told as she reclined in one of the leather armchairs. "We don't want you remembering things you don't want to."

The girl said nothing as she stared at the white-tiled ceiling with relaxed eyes, vestiges of her screamings and near-insane emotions showing only little traces. It was only eight hours later that the owner of the university's library discovered his already-blank-eyed assistant librarian had turned his library into a warzone, and instead of filing a police report, he had sent her off to the psychiatrist for better understanding of her situation, something he suspected to have connections with the girl's hundred-year disappearance. "I'm… I'm sorry… for what I have…"

"No need to apologize," the psychiatrist flipped a sheet on his clipboard. "The Principal is actually more concerned about you than the little display of power you did in the library. He has decided not to hold you for any damages too, so stay calm there." The man paused for a moment as he consulted his clipboard again. "Patchouli… Knowledge?"

"That is my name," the girl answered, not taking her eyes off the ceiling, as if something interesting had captivated them. "My friends… I mean, people used to call me 'Patchy'."

"So far, you are doing good with your responses. I hope you trust me."

Patchouli said nothing in reply, only adjusted herself in the comfortable seat. The man took that as his cue to continue. Going through the standard procedure, he slowly warmed himself up to Patchouli, who had seemed to be taking him easily into her heart, with a prepared set of questions familiar to anyone in his industry, even going to the point to ask about her love relationships. "I don't think anyone has actually hit up on me yet," Patchouli smiled with a slightly rosy-cheeked face.

Finally, after almost an hour of easy conversation, the psychiatrist felt that he had gained enough trust in her mind and slowly edged his way into the very topic that brought his patient into his room: Gensokyo. Patchouli, surprisingly enough, had already opened her heart and mind to the man and felt no difficulties telling him about her anxieties. Within less than twenty minutes, she had felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

"I… I must be truthful, you are the first patient I ever had," the psychiatrist pulled off his glasses and set them on a nearby desk, along with his clipboard, which had been filled with his handwritings over the past hour and leaned back into his own armchair. "Who actually recovers completely on her first visit to me."

"I… did?" Patchouli asked, unaware of her own progression in recovery from treading the line between insanity and stability.

"'The mind of man rests on a delicate balance between reality, the world of light, and the other darker world below the threshold of consciousness... and it is from this world of darkness which comes the evil destructive forces in man's nature', I once read."

"I don't quite get that."

"There's nothing you need to worry about now, Patchy," the man stood up, signaling the end of his session with her. Patchouli did likewise and took the handshake the psychiatrist offered. "Whatever you have experienced in the past, I would not say it's best forgotten, but only to move on. Let not the past chain you back in a sorrowful wallow. Confront your fears bravely, those who sacrificed themselves for you paid a heavy price for your continued life today. Be sure to return in kind, by living out your life meaningfully."

Thanking the university's psychiatrist, she made her way to the door, but was held back by the man's kind voice. "Take my advice, Patchouli Knowledge, sometimes penning out your thoughts helps."

Patchouli left the room… with a smile.

* * *

_Reimu…_

_Thank you for giving us that second chance at life. I might have sold myself to being a youkai, but upon reaching the Outer World, I began to feel the joy and melancholy of a human's life. All of these in four years, they must have been part of what you had gone through during your life in Gensokyo._

_I am, honestly, still befuddled by your decision to save Gensokyo despite the inevitable differences between humans and youkai, the latter forming the majority of Gensokyo. I have observed that humans were the most selfish of all kinds, that they steal, cheat, lie, kill, all of it simply to extend their chances of survival by minutes. My years in the library must have made me blithely blind to reality; we youkai were never much more different._

_I had come to realize, recently, that I was once a human too, coming from the Outer World, or as you and, probably by now, everyone, know as 'Earth'. I, too, share guilt in the sins I labeled you humans did. Every youkai was definitely something else before we became so. Each living thing that breathes is liable to faults, whether youkai or human._

_Your attitude, your endurance, your observation and instincts, those were the inevitable evolutions from your sins. Before my recent revelations, I had only thought humans were susceptive to sins, selfishly refusing to admit my own faults, that I was the most knowledgeable and nothing I did was ever wrong. I was even adamant when you had pointed out that I kept Koakuma as an unwilling slave of sorts in my library. If only I had opened my eyes sooner…_

_During one of her much-hated 'visits', Marisa had waltzed to my seat and told me about your decision to go underground to solve the incident. I still remember the answer I had given her, that humans were simply doing it for their own sake. That love-witch tried convincing me otherwise, as if she was already an enlightened thief, however not ready to return the books she stole. It was because of that did I refuse to cooperate with her to object your adventure down beneath the ground._

_Your passing had awoken the one fear in many a youkai's heart; the Barrier protecting us in Gensokyo would fall if you did. Fell did the barrier, along with an irradiated world incapable of sustaining life. Fortunately, being holed up in my library, I was one of the few who escaped only with emotional injuries. Everyone else brought along 'creepy doses' of radiation with them across the gap._

_Enough of the horrors in Gensokyo… I don't want to remember the One who disrupted our daily lives._

_I'm currently working as a __human__ librarian in some university, and the people who work or study in it, their actions resemble ours, almost to the point where I was beginning to think this was still Gensokyo, albeit in a future time. In this world, everything worked around consequences, and that was the main deciding factor in everything, from simple matters such as a lunch meal to big issues like world politics._

_Tell me… you knew the consequences of failing underground, didn't you? Didn't you? Tell me! ANSWER ME, YOU DAMNED MIKO-_

* * *

With a short burst of rage, Patchouli pushed herself away from the desk. Then, remembering her session with the psychiatrist, she took in deep breaths and calmed herself down. _I was really getting emotional again_, she thought as she turned the sheet of paper around, noting the increased pressure in her writing towards the last sentence she wrote, almost to the point of tearing through with the pen she was using.

Confident that she was in the right state of mind again, she continued the letter.

* * *

_… Sorry for the outburst, Reimu. That's if you ever get to read this though._

_I guess… frustration is also what one should experience in life. I was never frustrated before, only annoyed at most, usually with Marisa's burglary._

_You are probably laughing by now, a self-proclaimed know-it-all who barely has experience with the true meaning of life. And now do I understand. It's all about doing what you think is right, embracing consequences and simply living it out as much as you can within a lifetime. You've had your share, Reimu, and I'm now taking your passing as the cue to start mine, after more than one hundred years._

_Patchouli Knowledge_

* * *

**A.N.:** **Ehhh… I hope I wasn't going too off topic with both story and letter. I do get carried away easily! Well, this letter is definitely different from Alice's, which was heavier hearted and filled with remorse. I mean, I can't have every character feeling the same way, each person definitely has different takes on others.**

**I've thought of Patchy to be really naïve when it comes to issues that don't deal with magic, seeing her closed personality with being a bookworm for a century. Of course, her interpretation of life is from her point of view, not a general consensus that you or I would agree on.**

**It's just a story, damn it! But I hope you enjoyed it!**


	3. An Ill-fated Pride

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

"Yeah, I know, you always wanted to know…"

_Snipers, check._

"I've always kept this a secret…"

_Snipers ready. Assault team, check?_

"For so long… I don't remember how long…"

_Assault ready. Escort, check._

"Those sorrowful days when I had to make that decision…"

_Escort ready. Negotiator, check?_

"And now you will be the first person to learn of my reasons for…"

_Negotiator!_

The negotiator's head jerked up in sharp response to the call-sign from an earpiece. "Negotiator, ready. Base, check?" the negotiator spoke to a hidden microphone in the collar, shoving a hand into a pocket.

"Base, ready. Let me make this clear once more, that man we got cornered on the roof, he has a remote for blowing up the Big Bank's vault. Techies reported a no-go for defusing, claiming the wires are all of the same color. The President has given the green light for lethal force, but Command believes we can do this without drawing attention from the citizens in the city with gunfire. Escort, you are to escort our negotiator to the roof."

"Roger base."

"The criminal is demanding the release of his fellows from custody, along with a safe trip out of the country. You know that isn't going to happen. Negotiator, it will be your job to convince him to surrender peacefully. He looks to be unarmed at the moment, but if he threatens your life, the snipers will fire, so you are covered," the commander at the base station said over the police radio frequency. "Try to bring him out alive, alright?"

The escort officer, a S.A.T. officer himself, laid a hand on the negotiator's shoulder in his team. "Alright, you ready for this?"

"Yes, I am," the negotiator nodded.

"I know this is pointless now, but we've got procedures to follow," the officer whispered softly. "Ensure that the listener at base station can hear you and the criminal speak. Never respond directly to orders given over the earpiece. Can you do a mic test?"

"Mic, test," the negotiator complied. "Base, do you hear me?"

"Affirmative, negotiator, I hear you loud and clear," a female voice confirmed the hardware's working condition. The listener's job was to listen to the negotiations and hopefully would be able to point out certain keywords used by the criminals that would affect them most.

"Base, permission to move out," the escort officer spoke into his microphone.

After getting the green light, they began the short trip to the roof, comprising of one last set of stairs in the dim stairwell. A couple S.A.T. members were already at the closed door, crowbars in their hands, ready to breach at any moment. "Orders, sir?" one of them asked.

The negotiator only heard muffled shoutings from the supposed criminal on the roof, beyond the door, as a silent command was given to breach. Within seconds, the negotiator felt a cool breeze flow into the stuffy stairwell; the door was open.

"The path is clear ahead, negotiator," the escort officer patted those shoulders again. "Go on ahead and do your magic, we're all here for you."

The negotiator took the first step beyond the confines of the stairwell; apparently the criminal hadn't heard them, judging from his continued shouts of demands to the cops at street level. If they were ten levels above the ground, the negotiator felt nothing. Height was never a factor in any case, the outcome was.

With only four years of experience after graduation from the sponsored course in a local university, the police force had recognized this negotiator's latent talents in her work. There was never a failure in hostile negotiations; the negotiators in the police force prided on their work.

"Escort to negotiator, take the next step. The road is clear ahead, two arms width on both sides, at least."

Nodding in reply, the negotiator took the next step, and another, followed by a quicker pace. As the pace increased, the distance between the silent haven of the stuffy stairwell and the desperate shouting of the criminal decreased. _Each step that you take, you reduce the distance to your goal. Do it right the first time, do it well, and we can all go home_, the negotiator recalled other colleagues' advice.

It seemed that the criminal, a man judging from the voice, had noticed the negotiator's arrival behind him. "What… what's this?" the man shouted. "Why did you bring a blindfolded girl up here? I want a chopper out of this place!" If he was pointing a gun at her, she wouldn't have known.

The negotiator lowered her head slightly and raised both arms in the air. "I came in peace, sir," she turned her back to the man, showing her unarmed and unprotected back. Turning around again, she lowered the arms. "You can call me…"

"I don't want to talk to a negotiator! Tell your commander to heed my demands, or the Bank goes up in flames!"

"The Bank that you speak of, I have savings in it."

"Then you understand the seriousness of the situation! Release my fellows, give us a safe road outta here, we leave you your money and the building. No chopper, no fellows, no money, get it?"

"It's not just me, a large part of the city has life savings in it," she said, seemingly ignoring the man's demands. "You understand what happens if you blow that up?"

The man was silent for a while. The negotiator had thought he was going to hit her, but she then found out otherwise. "You blue shirts down there, I'm giving you only five more minutes to get the damn chopper here, or the Bank AND this lady here goes up!"

"You don't seem to realize, the civil service has funds going through that bank."

"What?" the man sounded as if she had caught his attention. Pressing on the advantage, she explained that without the bank, funds for a chopper to be flown in would be cut off, and they would not be able to meet his demands in the end. When she thought the man hadn't bought her story, she continued talking about bureaucracy, red tapes and all the necessary paperwork that needed to be done, that they should be given ample time to clear everything so that a helicopter would be brought in for him in the shortest possible time. Explaining that fear would not hasten paperwork, but actually risked messing up, causing more delays.

"If time is what they need, so be it! Just give me the damn chopper out of here soon!" the man barked.

_Base to negotiator, good job, you bought us time, now focus on the task._

She didn't smile or murmur a reply, simply went down on one knee and clutched her right shoulder on the back with her hands, surprising the criminal. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," she shook her head while replying in a weak voice. "Just some… old injuries."

"Punks decided to send a girl with back problems? That's where the money from that bank went to, hiring handicapped folks like you? It should have gone to us!" the man taunted.

"The police," she answered in an equally weak voice. "They won't pay me for this injury. Out of the line of work, they said."

"That's why me and fellas robbed that money well. We've got families to feed too. Won't be here if not for 'em! Won't be here if not for fellas and families! Won't be here if…!"

_Negotiator, criminal has repeated the word 'family'. _"Families?" she raised her head. "I'm sure your family wants you home In one piece."

"Take off that blindfold and look at me, cop," the man growled. With seemingly much effort, the negotiator removed her blindfold and showed her face, staring right ahead with her red-tinted eyes.

Or eyes that seemed to be dead, not registering anything that she saw. She was a blind negotiator.

"Blind girl working for the police? All those talks about giving you handicapped folks a second chance? What about us? We work hard, they screw us hard!" the man seemed to go back to the edge of the roof again while she retied the blindfold over her empty eyes. "Tell your government that they are squeezing us dry! They live in the mansions while we live in houses not meant for…"

"Humans?"

"What?"

"Not meant for humans?"

"That's what I want to say. You got a problem, cop?"

"A house… is it so filthy that a human cannot live in it?"

"What are you saying?"

"I used to have a home," the negotiator told him. "A family."

"I don't want to hear your sob story, woman."

"These people, they are the best I ever had. You do know the warmth of a family, don't you? You are a married man, after all"

"I never said I was married!"

"You _had_ a family," she pressed on. "And you still have."

"Nonsense, I don't have one."

"Then why are you doing this? Didn't you say it was for your families?" the silence that followed told her that she had caught him in a speech trap. _He seemed to be too agitated at the moment to think carefully._ When she got no more response after a few seconds, she spoke again. "Talk to me, sir, talk to me, tell me about your family. Tell me something that I don't know."

"The heck do you want to know about me? You're a cop, you finish your job here, you go home drinking with your chaps in office, and us fellas sit in the cellblock like rats!"

"Talk to me," she repeated. _Talk to me. When you are talking to me, you aren't doing anything else. Just talk to me._ "I want to understand your situation. Make me. My job isn't to make you surrender, I'm sent here to assure you of an open road out of this place."

_Negotiator! What are you saying?_

Ignoring the voice in her ear, she went on, recalling facts from the files read to her while still at the base station. "What made you come all the way out of home, sir? A sick family member? Education for the children?" the man continued to remain silent. "Or perhaps, a debt you can't repay? A loved one held in ransom…"

_Listener to negotiator, I think I caught a sharp intake of breath._

_Of course you heard it, I heard it too_, she thought to herself. "Money is always the problem, isn't it?"

"Got that right," he finally replied, albeit in a defeated tone. "You folks living well in this city will never understand." The criminal was right; they were in the middle of a large section of a city known for beautiful skyscrapers and luxurious houses occupying expansive acres of lands each. In short, the rich side of a city, while the other side laid common housing and slums.

The man, surprisingly, continued talking without any further prompts. "Girl got kidnapped by them thugs, local cops can't do it, thugs gave me a week. It's already two weeks here, got word girl got shot. Won't happen if there was money."

"What do you plan to do with money when you get it? What about your other fellows?"

"Assisted me when they hear there's money. It's always money. They got families too, you know?"

The negotiator, sensing a small amount of relaxation from the man, began working her magic, chatting with the man over the next half hour, allowing such time to pass without him remembering his actual situation on the roof. Such was her skills, unparalleled among the coppers; she had taken her studies in psychology seriously. Life experiences, maybe to a large extent too.

"Money," the man sighed, accompanied by the sound of a gun clattering to the ground. _So he was armed. Good thing I didn't attempt Plan A._ It had also felt as if the man was sitting down on the roof, some short distance away from her. "They always say that money solves all problems. Why won't it save my daughter?"

"Money did not save my family, either."

The man gave a weak laugh at that. "What happened?"

_No… I don't want to talk about it. Got to improvise this…_ "Sir, I've got word, the chopper is about ready."

_Negotiator! That is a negative! Repeat, that is a negative! What are you saying now, damn it!_

"About time," the negotiator heard a guffaw. "Them white collars do work better without the fear of a bomb blowing them flurry heads. How long more before it comes for me?"

"I have never taken a helicopter," she admitted. _That's the truth. Seen enough of the patches of clouds._ "Who knows? But it will come."

_Negotiator, Negative! Chopper is not inbound to your position!_

"Tell them to hurry up, then," then, a heartbeat later, "Forget it, fear slows them, like you said. Tell me about what happened to your family."

"I… My family…"

"What's wrong, woman? You heard me story, it's your turn."

"I…"

_Base to all units, President has ordered lethal action. All units to comply! Negotiator, withdraw slowly, snipers at your three o clock will fire once you are clear._

However, to the eyes of an unseen police observer from another building, the negotiator did the exact opposite, moving _into_ the line of fire, as if to put herself between guns and flesh. _I'm not yet done with my work. This man can be convinced, just like my previous ninety-nine cases._ "I guess… I could talk about that."

The man sounded as if he was moving closer to her, still on her left side. "Tell me then," he said in a voice as if they were having a normal conversation between friends.

_Snipers to base! Negotiator has moved in the way! We do not have a clear shot! Repeat, we do not have a clear shot, over!_

_Base to escort, grab the damned negotiator now!_

_Escort to base, the man is armed with a gun. He might shoot her if we burst in now._

_Base to escort, you do your damned job! Negotiator, withdraw immediately!_ _Snipers, reposition slightly!_

The voices in her head crackled with shoutings from all units involved in the operation, but she ignored them, totally blocking them out of her head. However, while doing so, she had totally forgot about the man and instead kept silent throughout while trying to mentally block the voices out. Too late, she sensed the man suspecting something was wrong. "What?" the man's voice turned hostile again. "What are they saying?"

"No, never mind," she shook her head, trying to bring the conversation back, but failed. The situation worsened as she heard the man cursed and pick his gun up again. "Snipers! Damn you, woman, you are distracting me!"

_Base to snipers, the President has given orders to fire AT ONCE!_

_Sniper to base, 75% risk of hitting our own!_

_Base to snipers, FIRE IMMEDIATELY!_

_Escort to negotiator, withdraw! Roll backwards and we will drag you out!_

A loud shot rang out from a mile away as the police sniper complied with the order. The negotiator heard the shot clearly, mentally visualizing the path of the lethal round. _I've failed. This is my unit's first failure in a situation, and there's only one person to blame for the failure. _With superhuman speed and unexplained timing, she raised herself high enough to shield the exposed and still stunned criminal with her body, taking the shot cleanly through her stomach and embedding itself into the criminal's left thigh. The negotiator felt nothing as the metal burned through her flesh.

_Negotiator hit! Repeat, negotiator has been hit!_

_Base to assault team, commence!_

The voices continued in her head as she fell to the roof tiles, but all she heard was the criminal's moaning in pain; he was still alive. "My… my family…" she breathed out to the unseen man. "T-t-hey are… are… my little… sister…"

As the last breath of air left the limp body, something rolled out of her skirt pocket, hit the ground and voices began emancipating from it.

* * *

_This goes out to Reimu Hakurei, wherever you are, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter._

_I'm now back on Earth, although not the same world that I lived in back then. The air, the people, the environment, it has become polluted, just like Gensokyo has become. Even my home, the people around me I called 'family', they were afflicted too. When Usutho struck at our home, I took it upon myself to battle her, knowing you had failed. The gall of somebody to take the Hakurei shrine maiden's blood before I did!_

_I cannot take that lying down, I simply can't. I had to battle the hell raven. It was during the dead of the night that she struck. Big mistake on her part, wouldn't it be? Big mistake on mine, I, like the rest of Gensokyo, underestimated her strength; her powers were beyond the gods that had themselves hinted to the raven about a hidden power in Former Hell._

_The first that struck me was something equivalent to what the humans here called 'an atomic bomb'. The impact tore me through the night sky, despite my powers being at their peaks, my body glowing like a shooting star across Gensokyo before plunging down into Misty Lake itself. Usutho did not stop at that; she went on to deliver a nuclear hell on my family. I pray they still live today._

_Was this what you had faced underground? A nuclear hell raven? Why did you not retreat back to the surface? If not for my youkai self, I wouldn't have survived that attack, much less you, a true human being with limitations in your body. So what if you are 'The Shrine Maiden'? You went on without us, and when you went on, you left us behind._

_Wasn't it a deal? There would be a rematch between us! Why did you go back on your end of the deal? What do I do now? My pride is at stake!_

_*click… click*_

_Yukari found me drifting on the lake hours later and told me about her grand escape plan out of Gensokyo. I didn't want to leave. I asked about my family, but she couldn't give me an answer. Then I realized I was looking at an endless night sky; I was blinded by Usutho's attacks, somehow. Such was her power. All Yukari promised was an opportunity to change my fate, to recover and one day return to battle in your name. Without my consent, she shoved me into that gap of hers and I found myself in this world… once again._

_Immediately, I felt the effects of what the humans here termed it as 'radiation'. There was this sharp piercing pain on my back and soon, I realized my wings had shriveled off, just like that, effectively and unceremoniously ending my life as a youkai. The weaknesses of you humans crept into me instantly; over the following week I began experiencing those 'illnesses' you claimed to always have when I demanded a rematch. My fangs refused to elongate themselves at the sight of human blood; I was able to walk under the hot sun without a shelter of any kind._

_Yukari had this big mansion in Japan, some place she said you knew about. I lived in that place for a mere month before something finally hit me; not seeing the people I called 'family' making it to her mansion brought me a lot of guilt. Here I am, safe and in one piece, while the rest of my family probably already dead in Gensokyo._

_Guilt. I hope you feel that for not carrying out your side of our deal. During my stay, Yukari asked me about this deal I had with you. I was supposed to sup on your blood if I won. Both of us then wondered why you would even agree to such a deal. Was it your confidence in yourself? Or were you simply looking down on youkai?_

_Yukari, despite her thousand year wisdom, could not give an answer. _

_*click… click*_

_Reimu, continuing from before, alright? Hope you are still listening._

_A few months later, Yukari found an answer for me; psychology. She told me a school nearby happened to be offering lessons for understanding the human mind. Naturally, that interested me, as I'm really eager to understand your reasons. However, when she mentioned that the course was sponsored by the civil service, I almost wanted to turn it down. I don't need humans' pathetic help! I can handle the costs on my own!_

_Yukari reminded me about our present situation. I hated her reasoning, but when I thought about the deal again, something within me made me reconsider._

_Long story cut short, I realized I was indeed the immature 'little girl' you had been labeling me in Gensokyo all the time. But despite all my tantrums and frustration with my blindness and the limits of a human's body, I somehow made it through after three years. Yukari counted them for me; I lost track of time in my imperishable night world._

_Three years did a lot to me; I had even completely forgotten about my deal with you, and, as a whole, Gensokyo. I was even able to detect the hidden feelings while conversing with others, and it was with my newfound skills that, during a short conversation with Yukari over dinner, only two members of my 'family' made it to Earth. One of them was Patchy; she didn't stay at the mansion at all, simply wandered off on her own, never to be heard again. The person who had been caring for me, feeding me, clothing me, aiding me in my daily life, was not Yukari, but my own little sister._

_I remembered._

_*Click… click*_

(Soft voice, almost whispering)_ Hi Reimu, it's me, again._

_This recording is four years late, but I'm current busy with work. In fact, I'm on a mission right now, so I try to be brief. Yukari claimed she had 'friends in high places' who were interested in my skills and understanding in psychology and offered to work for them. Gap hag convinced me to go, saying the money could contribute to the household, where I learnt that some of the others who survived were also staying in._

_This job deals with the human mind too. They called it 'negotiator', where my job was to dissuade their 'targets' from violence and to make them surrender. They told me to simply play with their targets' minds until they surrender themselves. Sounds impossible, right? Wrong. That's why you humans are always weak. Always played in your mind._

_My unit prides itself in successfully averting a violent end in every situation so far, and I have did my part in upholding this proud achievement in my last ninety nine assignments, never allowing myself to fail. I have always wondered what those humans looked like, their reactions upon realizing they had been either duped or somehow mentally broken down thanks to my words. But then again, feeding on fear no longer fills me; I've been reduced back down to a human too. I wonder if I had these skills to begin with in Gensokyo, maybe you would have survived?_

_Recently I began to think about our little deal again. Analyzed your conversation with me, which was still fresh in my mind. Scrutinize it. Dissected and mulled over it for hours. And finally, after seven long years of darkness, I found my answer: pride. You had your pride as the proud Hakurei miko, nobody was going to belittle you for who you are… or were. Pride,I realized, is the number one enemy of a living thing; it gives us meaning to live on, but yet kills us when we fail. That applies to you, Reimu, your pride killed you. I swear I would have let you live if you had lost to me. After all, I don't drink much. Oh well, being 'The Shrine Maiden' must have made you so hard to understand, no wonder you had so little friends. _

_However, for now, there's something I should share with you; my little's sister supposed instability._

_The day you broke into my mansion, you saw everything that I went all out to hide; a Dirty Little Secret. Why is she 'dirty'? My younger sibling probably looked just as normal as I expected her to be, as you would also expect her to be. Yeah, I know you always wanted to know. I've always kept this a secret for so long… I don't even remember how long, those sorrowful days when I had to make that decision._

_And now you will be the first person to learn of my reasons for-_

_ Negotiator, ready. Base, check?_

_*click*_

* * *

**A.N.: I have no prior experience in the field of justice, so this is definitely pure fantasy. Also, my first attempt in writing in such a style, feel free to criticize, it will be a learning experience for me. I was thinking if every letter had to be written? What about those voice recordings that people do before a major surgery that carried high risks? All of these came into my mind while I was playing Lethal Enforcers 3 (Seigi no Hero 3), and kind of inspired this storyline.  
**

**Initially, I was thinking along the lines of either "Lethal Enforcers" or "Believing in Justice" as the theme, but somehow, after writing (and losing track naturally), it ended up as this. If you haven't figured it out yet, the character in this story is actually Remilia Scarlet. Totally OOC, I know. You had your warning on my story summary!  
**


	4. A Child's Innocence

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

Flandre Scarlet opened her crimson eyes and took in the perfect imperishable night sky, complete with a full moon right above her in the middle. She was laying on her back cuddling her new favorite bat plush toy, which had been given to her exactly a year ago, bought from a local matsuri event by her elder sister Remilia. The cuddly soft toy was just about half as big as Flandre herself, designed as a _vampire_ bat with a one-toothed grin and a heart-shaped embroidery on the left side of the body.

Flandre then felt a chilly wind blew at her from her left; she simply drew up her wind-breaking cloth higher up to her chin as she continued to savor the night sky, her plush toy securely cuddled beside her under the cloth. Still feeling tired from before, she allowed her eyes to close, embracing the soft-again air as…

_RRRRRIIIIINNNNGGGG!_

_Damn, the alarm clock! It's a school holiday today, forgot to switch it off._ An arm reached out to turn it off, but missed. Another attempt, another miss. Frustrated, Flandre gave a sweeping motion with her arm… and still missed. Her mind then began forming an image of the accursed alarm clock, looking for the eye of the object. _Once the eye is found, all I need is to move it into the center of my hands and kyuuuuu~!_

Over the years on Earth, Flandre had noticed that her destructive powers had diminished completely, almost to the point where she felt as if she no longer was a vampire. Her thirst for blood had mysteriously vanished, her crimson orbs looking only as normal as a human's pair with red contact lenses, the _Laevateinn_ seemed to have never existed.

On the bright side, however, as noticed by the people living in the mansion, her supposed insanity and lack of control of her powers had also vanished when she left Gensokyo, along with their negative opinions of the younger Scarlet. Yukari herself could not give an explanation when asked by the older Scarlet sister, only that the radiation was probably the culprit. "Modern Earth science tells of mutations from radiation," Yukari had said. "It's like magic."

So when the alarm clock didn't explode into the pieces she was hoping for, Flandre sighed and kicked away her bed covers to shut the alarm clock off, finally remembering that she was no longer in Gensokyo. However, before she could even get off the bed, the full moon above her suddenly flared brightly, causing her to yelp in surprise and sent her hands covering her eyes. While bright lights and the sun didn't seem to affect her anymore, she still hated the light.

"It's only six in the morning, Flan," a woman wearing a nightcap had her hands on the alarm clock, effectively shutting it off. "You are waking the entire house up."

Flandre lowered her hands; the picturesque perfect night sky was gone; an overhead round fluorescent light in place of the full moon shone above, revealing two beds, one of them belonging to her. "Morning, Yukari."

"Go back to sleep, it's still early."

"I made a wish last night. I hope it comes true. I want to be awake when Big Sis comes home!"

"We won't know, Flan. There's a possibility she might have to continue working."

"I missed Big Sis!"

"I know you do," Yukari gently pushed the younger Scarlet to her bed. "But Remilia won't like it if she finds out that you aren't having enough sleep. I always get blamed for 'mistreating' you, if you hadn't known. Well, get some sleep, I'm going down to make breakfast."

* * *

**_Year I (A.N.: Consider this the year they entered the Outer World)_**_  
Reimu!_

_The Outer World is really beautiful! And do you know that this world has a holiday known as 'Christmas Day'? It's really exciting!_

_There was this big fat man at school with large white beard, wearing some red and white large coat, same colors as your clothes! My friends at school say he will give children presents every Christmas, and I got mine too! His name was 'Sand Tar Claws' or something, although he didn't seem to have claws or tar._

_Guess what I got?_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_Not telling you! When will you be coming to join us in the Outer World? Yukari said you had some business, along with Sakuya, Meiling and Patchy (I don't miss Koakuma, you know), in Gensokyo, but it's almost half a year since I saw you! Come join us soon! Just in case you can't make it… Merry Christmas! Yukari said it's customary that we greet people this way during Christmas, although I don't know what's merry about Christmas, other than getting presents from Sand Tar!_

**_Year II  
_**_Merry Christmas Reimu!_

_Yukari reminded me about Christmas this year. I didn't really do so well in school, but I do know one thing: It's Christmas again!_

_This year, Santa Claus (not Sand Tar Claws, as I had learnt recently) didn't visit us in school. Maybe he's going to Gensokyo?_

_When I told Yukari about this, all she told me was to write a card and paste it on the Christmas tree we have in the hall. I thought I would write my wish along with this letter: I wish for Big Sister to recover from her depression._

**_Year III _****(A.N.: Alice's letter was written)**_  
Where are you, Reimu?_

_What business are you doing with Sakuya and the others? You haven't been writing to us at all!_

_It's Christmas again, but this time Yukari bought me a present! I still have a wish though: Let Big Sis do well in school!_

**_Year IV _****(A.N.: Patchy's letter was written)****_  
_**_I don't know why I'm still writing this to you, Reimu, have you already forgotten about us?_

_Merry Christmas to you in Gensokyo. Send my regards to Sakuya and the other two, okay?_

_I don't know what you guys are doing in Gensokyo, but I hope it's fun!_

**_Year V  
_**_Merry Christmas!_

_Yukari lied to me all these while, you guys did write back to us! She showed me everyone's letters, telling us not to worry about you and the others. She says that you are also like Santa Claus, except that your name was Reimu Hakurei. However, you had the power to grant me my wishes! Thank you for those presents years ago, I didn't believe they had really come from you!_

_How did you know I wanted that dress from the shopping mall last year? Are you also in Gensokyo already? Where? Come to our mansion already! It's not as big as mine in Misty Lake, but it's really cozy! We all missed you, you know? Big Sis said all of you are busy with work, but she didn't tell me what you were doing! Big Sis is being naughty!_

_Since you can grant me those wishes years ago, can I ask for one more this year? I've been a good girl, you know? Big Sis, Yukari and my teachers said so! I wish for Big Sis to stop asking me a question whenever I ask her one, it has gotten really annoying ever since she took up that course in her school!_

**_Year VI_**

_Why? Why won't you come visit us?_

_Do you hate me for what I was in Gensokyo? I'm sorry if I was a bad girl back then!_

_Does Sakuya also hate me? Meiling, Patchy, and Marisa? I haven't seen them all these years! I really want to go home! I've seen enough of this world, I miss Gensokyo and my room! I even got bullied a few times in school because I 'won't grow up', like the other girls in my class told me._

_What's wrong with me? Why is my chest so 'flat', as the girls said? Even the boys won't talk to me like they do to the others._

_I don't know if you will grant me a wish this year, but please grant it to me, it's been a really bad year for me in school. I wish to be better liked in school next year!_

* * *

Two hours later, after not being able to go back to sleep, Flandre and the rest of the tenants went down to the hall for their breakfast, wished each other seasonal greetings and generally chatted about what they would do for Christmas. As she had done every year for Christmas, Yukari made a special breakfast for all of them, but always setting one filled plate on an empty seat aside. Everybody, except Flandre, knew whose plate that belonged to: The Missing Ones.

It had been a gloomy Christmas during their first year, but as the years went by, they gradually left their broken past behind and moved on.

Flandre was the only one in the mansion that had no idea what happened to everyone else who didn't show up on Earth more than half a decade ago; Remilia had requested for her sister to be kept innocent about Usutho's atrocities until she was older, fearing 'further instability', as she had put it. They had kept their promises and said nothing whenever Flandre asked about them, specifically those who had been working and living in the Scarlet Mansion in Gensokyo.

As they continued with breakfast, Yukari, who was also at the dining table, glanced at the clock; it was already half past eight. _If Remilia is to come home now, it will usually be at this time, especially if she works overnight._

Grabbing her mug of juice, the Boundary Princess, now a regular middle-aged woman with powerful contacts all across the globe known as Earth, walked over to the window and stared out. Sure enough, the drive outside her mansion was empty, except for a familiar white car. Turning around, she…

_White car? Isn't that the discreet vehicle those guys always use for sending Remilia home?_ "Flandre!" Yukari shouted across the hall happily, glad she had been able to keep up with her lie about Reimu being able to grant Flandre her wishes. _Thank you, Reimu!_ "I think Remilia's home!"

With a squeal of delight, Flandre fell backwards on her chair and made a mad dash for the main door, where she waited impatiently for Yukari to retrieve the mansion keys, amusing the others to no ends, including Yukari herself. As she strode over to the main door, jiggling the keys to further tease the impatient young Scarlet, she looked out of the window again, stopped dead in her tracks and stared hard; the white car was parked in front of the gate, as it had always done, but behind it were two Special Assault Team (S.A.T.) vehicles.

Two armed S.A.T. members opened the front door for an officer to exit from; Yukari recognized him as Remilia's unit commander. Other S.A.T. members, all armed with their rifles, formed a mini assembly outside her gate, facing the mansion, as if looking directly at Yukari. None of them opened the rear door of the white car, where Remilia usually exited from.

_Something is wrong. Usually only her colleagues would send her home, without those S.A.T. vehicles. If her commander and a full escort is here…!_

Flandre's impatient voice brought her back from a dark reverie. Her hands visibly shaking, she inserted the key into the slot and turned it, unlocking the heavy dark wooden door. With another happy squeal, Flandre sprinted out with full innocent vigor while Yukari stepped out slowly, not wanting to contemplate with the situation she would be in less than a minute's time, her mind also occupied with the wish card Flandre had lovingly put up on the Christmas Tree the night before.

* * *

**_Year VII_**** (A.N.: Remilia's final entry in the voice recording was made on this year, this letter was hung on the Christmas tree on the night before Christmas)  
**_Merry Christmas Reimu!_

_I'm currently very excited, because Yukari told me there's a possibility Big Sis will come home from work tomorrow morning to celebrate Christmas Day with us! This year has been good for me; I did well in my tests, Big Sis says I've been a good girl and has promised me a surprise for Christmas!_

_But two days ago, she got called out for work while 'on leave', I don't know what that means, but I only know she had to go back to work. She hasn't returned since, Yukari says she's probably working 'overtime'. I asked her where Big Sis would be sleeping, Yukari only said they had somewhere for her and told me she didn't know about anything else._

_She hasn't called home, strange isn't it?_

_I asked Yukari if you are still granting me wishes this year, and she said you are, so here's my wish for this year:_

**_I WISH TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS DAY WITH BIG SISTER REMILIA._**

* * *

**A.N.: I've changed my earlier entry's S.W.A.T. over to the correct term for Japan, which is S.A.T., since I have decided to localize that story to somewhere in Japan. This entry is linked to the previous entry too.**

**As the title reads, I am trying to portray Flandre as the young innocent girl, who has totally no idea about the situation and nobody telling her anything. Typical young kids style, I guess. It's really sad for the children in such cases. About those letters that Flandre mentioned in Year V, they were supposedly written by Yukari herself, and somehow Flandre fell for it. I still haven't decided the reason she was given for leaving Gensokyo, though.**

**Also, this is the only entry, that has a fixed date; Christmas Day. The world didn't end, but this story took place in 'Year VII", not necessarily 2012. The year would probably be determined in my future entries.**

**As for the 'other tenants' in the mansion, they were named so because I haven't really decided who I would write about, or if even a certain character would be living with Yukari. They will definitely be Touhou characters, but just so you know, I wouldn't be writing ****_all_**** characters of Touhou, only some selected ones, in no order, even thought I had a PM asking if I would be doing Perfect Cherry Blossom characters after EoSD.**

**I wish all readers an early Merry Christmas, may your wishes come true. Did/will Flandre's wish come true? Only time will tell.**


	5. A Humanly Immortal's Inhumane Promise

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

**A.N.: A little note before I begin, I prefer not to, even though Touhou is set in a Japanese theme, have characters address in the Japanese customary titles, such as –san or –chan etc etc. Other than this, certain words remain as such. Think of this as a translated work.**

"Miss Fujiwara?" the shrine's resident miko appeared in the main hall. "What brings you here today?"

"Uh, good evening!" Fujiwara no Mokou waved in reply from her standing position, still dressed in the suspenders and dirty westernized shirt she had worn since her days in Gensokyo. It was almost midnight, and while this particular shrine was opened all year round, lately Mokou found herself attracted to the shrine. _I don't know why, it feels like Gensokyo here. The air, the peace, the tranquility of the shrine…_

"Hmm?"

"Well…"

"You've been here almost every night since two years ago, Miss Fujiwara," the lone miko smiled. "This shrine may be small and in the middle of the forest, but you have been one of our most devoted attendee here."

"I'm… not a Shintoist, actually."

"I've heard that one from you before. Is that why you chose not to show up for _Onbashira_?"

"I've seen it numerous times myself," Mokou replied. _Almost like a daily event with that Kanako's bragging on the Mountain._ "And immortals do not lie!"

"Miss Fujiwara," the miko smiled warmly, having heard Mokou's tales numerous times. "There is never immortality. All of us will pass on some day. I do enjoy those stories of your 'Fujiwara no Mokou's One Thousand Year Journey'-"

"One thousand and three hundred!"

"Yeah, that. They really are entertaining, but it can't be true."

"Meh," Mokou scratched her head.

"Either ways, I thank you on behalf of every other miko whom you have spent time with every night. It sure can be lonely here when everybody has gone home. Are you here to share another of your stories tonight, Miss Fujiwara?"

"Half of the truth!" Mokou beamed, her face turning almost as red as the miko's hakama. "The other side of my story… to protect the shrine against… youkai!"

The miko burst into laughter. "Youkai, Miss Fujiwara? That's so sweet of you! I was thinking thieves, to be honest. But what can you do against a determined group of thieves wielding guns?"

"I am immortal, I can't die."

"I love how you spin stories out of nowhere, Miss Fujiwara," the miko swept past the woman, staring out into the night sky from the top of the stairs. "It's a secluded clearing in the middle of the forest, dear. We have to be on our guard against robberies," the miko turned around to face Mokou. "But fortunately, our faith in the god has certainly paid off; no robberies have occurred on our sacred grounds since your good arrival here, Miss Fujiwara."

"Maybe… maybe I'm too un-ladylike with my clothes? It scares them away?"

The miko burst into another round of laughter again. "Some of us believe so, Miss Fujiwara. I mean it well, we don't really see ladies wearing suspenders. I would have mistaken you for a chivalrous man with long hair if your voice didn't give you away!"

Outside the shrine, lightning flashed across the night sky, thunder roared and it suddenly started raining. "Miss Fujiwara," the miko's voice became one of concern. "I understand you are homeless, it must have been hard on your to live alone in that forest. Why won't you consider staying in the shrine during the nights?"

"I'm… I'm fine out there," Mokou said. _I lived in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost for ages, always under the rain, sun or snow. The forest will always be my home._

"But how can a gentle soul like you actually live out there in the brutal green?"

"Because I'm immortal!"

"Oh, come on!" the miko couldn't hold herself back and giggled again. "You really are silly, what if you come down with a cold in that rain? I won't have you arguing today, Miss Fujiwara, you are an honored guest under the shrine's sacred roof. I will see to it that you are sheltered tonight. I'm afraid I don't have a room to spare, but-"

"If you insist, Miss Miko," Mokou sighed in defeat. In exchange for not wanting to address her by her first name, Mokou, in return, refused to address them by theirs, and kept to a simple name for all miko of the shrine. "But I won't have myself imposing on you. If you are alright with me sleeping along the corridor…"

"As long as you aren't under the rain, dear."

"Then it's settled, but only for tonight!"

"You can always come back and find shelter here if ever you decide to, Miss Fujiwara, this shrine welcomes you honorably, just like we welcome visitors and devotees. But I still don't understand why you won't seek a proper shelter in the town near this shrine."

"I feel better being nearer to the shrine, Miss Miko."

The miko sighed as she shook her head, both in disappointment and not understanding the woman standing in front of her. "Your kindness will pay, Miss Fujiwara. There aren't many like you out there in the world anymore. Not many people give a damn about our well being in the shrine, or if the shrine even has problems. One day somebody will take upon your kindness and return you in kind."

"I feel like it is my duty to protect this shrine, Miss Miko. If only I had money-" Mokou flipped out the empty pockets of her suspended pants.

"And your presence here is good enough," the miko laid a soft hand on Mokou's. "Well, since you are here tonight as an honored guest, how about some hot soup? You will make yourself comfortable while I bring it out here, then we can begin your next story."

"Yes, Miss Miko."

"Oh yes," the miko turned around as she was leaving for the small pantry in the shrine. "I'm already curious, but what would be tonight's story?"

"_The Phoenix versus the Nuclear Hell Raven_."

* * *

"Good morning, Miss Fujiwara," a familiar face beamed at her.

Mokou's eyes sprang open and she leapt up from her sleeping position with equal speed. _Where am I? All I remember was telling the miko about my battle with Usutho, how I lost and…_

_I felt really tired after that. Did I just fall asleep in front of the miko? How embarrassing…!_

"Sorry, dear, I laced your soup with sedatives," the miko smiled. "It was the only way I could do to ensure you slept properly for once. How was your sleep?"

Mokou finally looked down; she was wearing a simple white kimono, laying comfortably on a futon with a pillow under snug covers, her talismans that were usually tied to her hair and clothes were resting on a bamboo basket beside her futon, all of them looking clean. _Or even new. And the comfort… nobody has shown me so much care since…_ "Good… really good." _How long has it been since I slept so well? Keine might have allowed me one night in her home, but that was because I was plenty drunk-_

"Now, silly dear, isn't this better?" the miko smiled like a mother to a daughter. "Living humanely."

"I…" Mokou was lost for words. "I… thank you…"

"Thank _you_!" the miko emphasized the second word. "It is the least we can do to repay you, Miss Fujiwara. Sorry about the change of clothing, though, the kimono is the only-"

"No problem!" Mokou pulled her covers aside and felt her hand along the article of clothing. "It's good enough for me, but where are my own clothes?"

The miko pointed at the window, where her _cleaned_ clothes hung on metal hangers, along with her shoes placed in a lady-like manner below them, looking washed. "Those are for you to change back once you decide to head out today. Breakfast, if you don't mind, would be vegetarian. If you will excuse me…" the miko bowed after standing up and left to attend to the day's visitors.

Mokou sat up on her futon, still surprised by the care she had been given.

* * *

_Reimu, is that you, already reborn as one of the miko in this shrine?_

_It can't be, this shrine has onbashira, it can't be you._

_But why was I drawn to this shrine? Was it because of you? Day after day I keep thinking back about you, despite you not being the one whom I cared for most. You are a human after all, aren't you? I took it upon myself to defend humans against the youkai, and while nobody took notice of my efforts, I felt satisfied whenever I drove back human-eating youkai from the village._

_What about you? You __**ARE**__ a human too! Why did I not spare a thought for you? I even gave more attention to Keine, whom I'm pretty sure isn't fully human, despite having the graces of one. So why was I caring for somebody that wasn't totally human over you? Yes, you attacked me, but out of innocence, wasn't it? That crafty Kaguya sent you out on some trial of guts or something? And you teamed up with a youkai!_

_I wouldn't have put it past myself to forgive your actions, if not for the fact you spared me after the duel. That was humanly enough of you, no youkai would ever spare a thought while thinking of ways to have me done for dinner. Yet after that encounter, I stopped thinking about you, confident that you could hold on your own._

_Nobody ever told me about your loneliness at the shrine, Reimu. Keine dropped some hints of what you did at the shrine, but I was nevertheless clueless. Never once attended your flower viewing banquets or those big parties some of your friends seemed to love throwing for you. If you were lonely, I could have been your company; I lived in solitude for more than a millennia._

_We could have been friends, too, maybe? I mean, we both could use a real friendship, or even comradeship? We have something in common between us; to repel youkai at all costs. But would you want an immortal as a partner? I have heard of you having some troublesome friends whenever you go out on 'incidents'. Maybe being alone is what you really wanted? Surely you don't feel the pain of being alone all the time?_

_Fine… so be it, maybe there's some people out there who needed personal space. I wouldn't really dream of having a close friend either; I would have devoted a lifetime of happiness to my friend, only to get more than a century worth of hurt myself after it ended._

_But… why go in alone, Reimu?_

_I felt as if I didn't do enough as humanity's vanguard, even from my position in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. I should have been there when you needed help most… before she did her worst on you. I should have been there to take the blow for you, like I had always done for the Human Village. Maybe if I had known about your suicidal mission down below, you would probably be still alive, and we would still be in Gensokyo, sipping tea as you admonish me for my stupidity in going down to save you?_

_I couldn't die, as much as I wanted, Reimu, even after your passing, while defending the Human Village against the hell raven's onslaught. The Hourai Elixir was a blessing and answer for humanity…_

_And it carried a curse in silence._

_I can't simply disappear from guilt. I was cursed by the Elixir to face my sin; Reiuji Usutho._

_She came when Yukari was preparing for the mass exodus out of Gensokyo. I, too, was there, at Mayohiga, along with the others, anxiously awaiting for the spell work to be stable. I remember being dumbstruck at the figure who had been said to have killed the Hakurei shrine maiden. I remember how strong you had been when we first met, and that you probably had grown even stronger as those months and years passed. It made me shudder in real fear, something I had long forgotten as an immortal, for my life when Usutho began her final attack against Gensokyo._

_Yukari's nine-tailed pet volunteered to stay behind in Gensokyo to hold out as long as she could. I felt compelled to do the same; after all, I had no other choice. In front of me, in the radiated sky, was the enemy of my existence and the slayer of the people who I had sworn to protect with my fists, fires and immortality. I wasn't ready to fail myself again; I took off into the sky to meet my sin._

_The thought of your death at such a youkai, it enraged me. Fueled my fire. The despair that was brought upon everybody by her acts of destruction, they further kindled the fire. Yukari's pet, loyal till the end, knowing her own fate if she stayed behind, gave her own smaller nekomata pet a loving hug before joining me at the outskirts of the abandoned village, it roughed me emotionally. The fact that every second we delayed Usutho was a second worth of time bought for the rest of Gensokyo, I was ready to give it my all, even at the cost of suffering the after-effects of resurrection at such a death in a radiated world._

_Something within me took over my being, something with the same burning desire to protect what I had failed to. The phoenix within me was finally born; I was no longer the Fujiwara no Mokou people had known. But I remembered clearly what had happened next; there was no difference. I got knocked out of the sky shortly._

_Yukari, a youkai herself, of all people, must have saved me, because when I woke up, I was already in the Outer World, all alone again. Right here, in the middle of this forest, my crash site, proof of my immortality._

_Was it fate that guided me, a useless immortal after all, to safety? Or was it actually your doing? A shrine couldn't have coincidentally been near my spot!_

_What is it that you wanted me to do, Reimu?_

* * *

Mokou's head snapped upwards at the smell of smoke. _Almost like something's burning. Forest fire?_

Putting down the pen and paper given to her by the shrine's miko, she crawled out of her tattered tent and took a deep breath; the smell of smoke was indeed there. Fortunately, the rain had stopped the night before, and she was able to follow the trail of smoke in a direction she was undoubtedly familiar with.

Leaves and broken branches crunched underneath her leather boots, a gift she had reluctantly accepted from the shrine just three months ago when she had insisted again on living in the forest. _This path leads to the shrine. I wonder…_

Suddenly, Mokou broke into a sprint despite the rough terrain, tripping over hidden logs at least twice. _Is the shrine on fire?!_

As she neared her destination, the smoke became thicker, causing her to cough as she took in soot-filled breaths. _I may have been playing with fire all my life, but this is definitely…!_

A scream cut through the air in the forest. _Somebody is calling for help! It's coming from that shrine, I bet._

Finally, she arrived at the base of the shrine… or whatever was of it; in front of her stood a burning shrine. Caring nothing for her own safety, Fujiwara no Mokou leapt up the stone steps in bounds, her mind focused on entering the shrine to save anybody she could. As she made her way up, she caught side of somebody fleeing through the forest. _Arsonist?_

Ignoring the runaway figure, she continued her way up the stairs, panting as she came to a stop at the halfway point. _Gotta keep going!_

Another scream, this time definitely from _inside_ the shrine. _Miss Miko!_

Ignoring the aching in her leg muscles, ignoring the pain from her exhausted lungs, ignoring the pounding in her head, she continued up the stairs. Nearer and nearer she came to her goal, but each step after the tenth began to feel like an eternity as the pain in her mind took over.

_No! Can't… give up… now!_ Mokou made it up another step, and another… and another… and slipped on a mossy patch on the next, her head coming first against the stone steps, knocking the air out of her. Dizziness followed and threatened to knock her out like the soup the miko had fed her did. _Don't sleep... don't sleep… don't close those eyes… lives depend on you… Hakurei miko's life depends on you… the miko…_

_Hakurei Miko?_

"Reimu?" Mokou breathed as she forced herself to look up. Through her blurry eyes, she began to see a black-haired girl wearing miko wear with detached sleeves. _Hallucination?_

Another desperate scream for help pierced her ears painfully, the image of Reimu still standing at the front doors to the shrine, as if beckoning her to reach her intended goal. With determination and gritted teeth, Mokou painfully pushed herself back on unsteady feet, falling again at first, but, on all fours, began making the final leg of her climb up the stairs. _I'm… I'm Fujiwara…_

Another step cleared. _Fujiwara…_

And another. _no…_

One more step cleared painfully. _Mokou!_

_I AM FUJIWARA NO MOKOU THE IMMORTAL!_ Mentally screaming at herself, the last descendant of the Fujiwara clan roared out against the pain and fatigue she had accumulated while sprinting up the many steep steps of the stairs leading to the shrine and charged upwards in renewed vigor. Even as she finally cleared the last step, she stopped for not a single breath as she threw herself into an inferno that was consuming the shrine.

Whether it was for Reimu or the actual Outer World miko in the shrine, Mokou only had one thought in mind.

* * *

_I guess… I answered my own question, Reimu. If I am allowed to continue my existence back on Earth, it means I have been given a second chance._

_I failed to protect you. Yes, I have failed badly like a bad song being sung by the song bird youkai. But here I am, an opportunity to make up for it, and it seems to me that you probably fated for it. A shrine and its miko… they are mine to protect. I may have lost the most important miko to have ever existed in my lifetime, but there are so many more that will need my help._

_This is my promise to you, Reimu. No more shrine maidens in this shrine shall ever suffer under my watch. I shall incarcerate my existence to a loyal guard duty over this relic of this world, and no evil, youkai or human, shall cross into its sacred grounds, even if I ever have to place my body on the line at every possible situation. I may have lost my powers over the control of fire when I was (possibly) gapped out of Gensokyo, but I will still keep my promise._

_My promise… as the last descendant of the Fujiwara clan._

_Fujiwara no Mokou, the Immortal_

* * *

**A.N.: This is my slightly redone attempt for Mokou. The first one that I posted up, which I took down in five minutes, disgusted me. It was so incomplete, so cheesy, so unlike another man's work on the site!**

**Enough of the 'another' jokes around lol.**

**Mokou has always struck me as being a guardian for something. In fact, I was planning for another character for this entry, but after reading fanfictions here about her saving others, or even being 'Hurricane Mokou' (cookies to those who know where this name came from), I knew I had to do one for Mokou sooner or later.**


	6. Reality of a Dream

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

* * *

Kawashiro Nitori opened her eyes, and gasped.

In front of her was Lake Suwa, just as she had remembered. The light breeze that usually blew across the lake, she felt it in her face, the feeling all too familiar. Lake Suwa's waters, murky on the surface, reflected the light rays that was beating down from the noon sun, as if it was glittering with diamonds.

The trees on its bank, however, swayed not in the breeze. There were no birds flitting in the sky, neither were there sounds of insects. Nitori took note of that and closed her eyes again, seeming to concentrate with her mind. In a few moments time, insects, such as cicadas and grasshoppers, began making their usual noises in the day, eradicating the deafening silence that reigned the atmosphere, the trees swaying gently in the wind, rustling their leaves among the chorus of insect noise.

Reaching up to her head, she pulled down the visor on her green cap to block the sunlight from her eyes… and gasped again. Pulling the cap off her head, she brought it down to chest level and examined it closely; it was her favorite green cap, the one she had lost during a fatally close encounter with Usutho in Gensokyo. At the same time, she found herself wearing her usual pockets-filled dress and wellington boots. A weight on her back suddenly registered itself in her mind; it was her trademark backpack.

_Only the key is missing._ Closing those blue eyes that she was born with those hundred years ago, she willed for the missing item to appear, and when she reopened them, the key was there, hung across her chest. The key was a symbol of her professionalism in her trade as an engineer among the kappa that existed in Gensokyo; it wouldn't do to appear in front of anyone without it.

_I'm back in Gensokyo, I did it! It's like magic… a dream of a dream coming true once again._

Her neutral-looking face breaking into a smile, she treaded carefully on the banks of the lake, removed her boots and sunk her feet into the water; the temperature was cooling even though it was a hot day in the midsummer. Naturally, her right hand snaked itself into one of her pockets near the hem of her dress and came away with a modern device from the Outer World: a thermometer. _Funny that I didn't get to create this back then._

Dipping the metal bore into the lake, she saw no readings on the thermometer. _Of course, there's no temperature here. Not in such a world._

Nitori cupped her hands into the lake and brought some of the lake's waters out and drank it. There was no taste of water, neither was there a feeling that she had been drinking something. _Gotta add this to my to-do list._ Glancing down at her watch, also a modern marvel from the Outer World, she saw that it was close to evening, yet the atmosphere in Gensokyo felt like it was in the middle of an afternoon. _It's almost dinner, but there's something I still wanna do._

After replacing her boots on her feet, an electronic clipboard magically appeared in her waiting left hand; she fumbled with it and in a few seconds time, she found herself in front of an ancient Japanese Shinto shrine on the top of a hill. Instead of concrete, she saw stone steps leading up to the shrine itself. Fiddling with her electronic clipboard again, she shifted her position to the top of the shrine instantly. _I hate climbing stairs._

At the entrance of the closed shrine was a donation box under the veranda, made out of bamboo. A hundred yen coin appeared in her right hand, which she gently dropped into the box between the slots and clasped her hands in silent prayer. Bowing thrice to the shrine, she stepped up to the door and slid it open.

The interiors of the shrine was, of course, empty. _I have never stepped into the Hakurei Shrine back then, I wouldn't know what's inside. All I can hope is that somebody remembers exactly how it looks like._ A few random shrine-related furnishings and a generic altar then appeared on their own accord and filled the shrine's interiors.

At the back of the shrine was a small pond she had seen before in Gensokyo. Unlike the actual Hakurei Shrine of the past, this one had a statue standing in the middle of the pond, portraying a figure of a Hakurei miko brandishing a gohei. There was a metal plate attached to the base of the stone base:

**_Hakurei Reimu  
(XOXO-OXOX)_**

**_Here stands the greatest heroine of our world.  
Once a miko of justice,  
Always will be the miko in our hearts._**

_**Let this be the waypoint of your return.**  
**We are all waiting**._

Nitori then realized something else was missing from the pond. She consulted the clipboard again, then looked into the pond; a turtle with grandfather beard was swimming in the pond. _Hakurei Shrine's pond is not one without old Genjii. I'm sorry you didn't make it out with us, but this will have to do._ Some bread crumbs appeared in her hands; she tossed them absent-mindedly at the turtle as she stared at the stone statue again.

* * *

_You are the reason why I'm doing this, Reimu. Everybody misses you, human or not. Lots of us in the Yakumo mansion are really having a hard time melding in with the humans of the Outer World, I myself included among them. Yukari had a good intention for keeping us in her mansion; she knew it would be the only place we can actually belong outside of Gensokyo._

_In the mansion, we could freely do what we always did in Gensokyo, barring real danmaku. Yukari's mansion was very large; I had the underground basement to myself, and live in it too. You may or may not remember me, but I was an engineer kappa on the Youkai Mountain's base, working on all the inventions you probably have never seen in your life. I've decided to pursue my dream to invent something useful, and found this._

_It has been a really long time since we arrived in the Outer World. One of Yukari's friends here, claiming to be a medical professional just like that Eientei woman, diagnosed me with… some sickness. I don't know what it is even till today, but he told me it was like a time bomb that could explode at any moment. All I understood was that I wouldn't live past the eighth year, and ever since I have been working really hard for the past seven. It is my ultimate dream to create something for everybody here, and one of those dull moments four years ago, my mind wandered precariously on this; recreating Gensokyo._

_With the help of another of Yukari's mysterious friends, we managed to create a forgable virtual reality out of a small central processing unit based in my workshop in her mansion underground. Everything here, including this statue I've created with a designing program, is the result of my labor to bring back Gensokyo. My intention is to recreate our home exactly as it was and give everybody access to this virtual world._

_How this reality works is really marvelous; all I had to do was to bring forth my memories of our home and every single detail into a device that I have created with my bare hands, and then it gets mapped into the program, generating its presence in the virtual reality. Lake Suwa, Hakurei Shrine, Mayohiga, the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Youkai Mountain, the list goes on. I'm working on those at the moment, but I thought it would be appropriate to work on your shrine first. After all, everybody missed you._

_At the moment, the program is still unstable and cannot support more than one user connected to the virtual world. A little study into medicine and chemistry allowed me to invent a light drug that, once administered into our bodies, will allow us to hallucinate along the lines of the program and, as what the humans like to term it, 'log in' into the virtual world. In the games that the humans here play, people like us are known as 'player avatars' and non-controllable characters that we can interact with are known as the 'non playable characters', or NPCs. _

_But this isn't a game, Reimu, it's a dream of a dream coming true. All of us aren't liking the brutal environment of the Outer World, we can only belong to Gensokyo. Maybe with a virtual world like this, all of us can save ourselves from losing sanity. After all, it is only right that vampires should exist in a mansion of her own across Misty Lake, not in a small room shared with her younger sister. Maids, fairies, other youkai and sprites, I have to work on them soon._

_In this world, I have control of what I desire; there will be no hell-raising nuclear hell ravens to torment us again. I will design it so that you, the Hakurei miko, will be the strongest among us, even as an NPC. It really hurts to think of you appearing as an NPC instead of someone joining us in the dream, but I guess it can't be helped. In this world, you will defeat Reiuji Usutho in that danmaku battle and bring back to us the life we had all along._

_…_

_Sucks, isn't it? It's only going to be a dream, a virtual reality. How would it be like if this was actual, Reimu? Who would we actually meet after that incident? How many more incidents before you would finally fall? I fear to think of that. It seems that with every incident you had successfully averted, your battles had only got much harder than the one before. Did your death underground actually brought you a silent blessing from the never-ending vicious cycle you would have wound yourself into if you had won?_

_Am I really cruel to design it so that you always win the battles in this world? I don't even know if you actually enjoyed any of these._

_Maybe I should just give up, huh?_

_…_

_ I made virtual Gensokyo not to just honor you, but for the sake of all of us who escaped Gensokyo that day, to be able to see our homeland again, I would still do it. Maybe I can simply make a stale reality where nothing changes? No more incidents? But wouldn't everybody get bored after a while?_

_So many things to do, so little time. I wished I had started on this on the very day we came here. It looks like I only have less than a year to go. If only I have more time to finish this project of mine-_

* * *

"Oww!" Nitori woke up with a jolt as a sharp prick pierced her left arm. Staring at her from above her reclining chair in the dark room was none other than Yakumo Yukari, who had removed a needle that had been slid under the skin on her arm.

"You've been poking yourself with needles for the past few years," Yukari waved the offending metallic thin foil at the blue-haired girl, the exposed tip stained in blood. It was connected to a small transparent bag containing colorless fluid hung on a coat stand, almost like an IV tube used in hospitals. "If I hadn't known better, I would think you are doing drugs under my house."

"I'm working on my project!" Nitori protested, getting up from the chair. Looking down at her own clothes, she found herself wearing a modern westernized shirt and short skirt, instead of her favorite set of clothing in Gensokyo. "Please don't 'disconnect' me like that! At least allow me to wake up on my own."

"Can you try something else that doesn't require you to inject yourself with that?" Yukari pointed at a table loaded with vials. "Just take a good look at your arm, it's filled with piercings!"

"So what? You and I know I don't have much time remaining. I do whatever I want, it's MY body after all!"

"I still don't know what you are working on, Nitori."

_Yeah, I hadn't really shown her anything before._ "What did you think I was working on?"

"Something to save your own life?"

"This illness is terminally fatal, Yukari. Your friend himself said so. I'm not going to work on something I know I will never succeed on, much less the technologically-advanced humans of this world."

"And whatever you have in mind, you are sure you will succeed? All I see so far is that CPU and you poking needles into your arm almost every single hour that you aren't sleeping in the small cot at the corner!"

Nitori considered her options as she decided on what to say. "Fine, I will tell you. But promise me you wouldn't speak of this to anybody else. Not yet, at least?"

Yukari extended her hand out. "You can trust me on this. But at least come upstairs for dinner first? You've skipped breakfast and lunch today; I won't have you skipping anything else."

Nitori took the hand. "Say, isn't it Christmas tomorrow?"

"Yes, it is. I'm surprised you have been keeping track of time despite being holed up in here for years, just like little Flandre was in Gensokyo."

"Do you know how a village looks like in Christmas?"

"Why do you ask? You can actually head out for once and have a look outside."

Nitori grabbed a coat as she followed Yukari out of the dark room that was her bedroom, doubling also as her workshop. "In this case, I'm going out tonight after dinner."

* * *

Calibrating the time setting on her clipboard, the sky darkened and soon a full moon shone brightly above. Nitori fumbled further with her device and soon it was also snowing. _Just like winter, minus the brutal snowstorm we occasionally face. Just this soft, smooth snowfall._

Calling on a program function, she activated a setting and Christmas decorations began springing into existence all over the Hakurei Shrine. Bulbs of lights that decorated Christmas trees, which shouldn't have existed in Gensokyo, decorated the roof of the shrine, snowmen appearing at random spots outside the shrine, even the donation box had a mistletoe hung on the front. Even Reimu's statue had a Santa's hat on the top.

Even though she felt no cold (as Nitori hadn't begun working on life-like temperature settings for a virtual world), she created a soft-knitted scarf and draped it over Reimu's neck on the statue. The scarf was red and white, complementing the colors of the usual outfit of shrine maidens, and had Yin-Yang orbs embroidered all over the fabric. _Keep warm, Reimu._

Bending down, she scooped up some of the snow, molded them into a ball and flung it at a nearby snowman; it was a direct hit. Nitori half expected the snowman to react, but then realized she hadn't work on automating the NPCs yet. _One day I will have you throwing a snowball back at me!_

Although her body in Yukari's mansion was in a deep sleep of some kind, she felt herself feeling very tired all of a sudden. _Maybe I should call it a day? I've been working on this since daybreak after all._

As she summoned up the clipboard to 'log off', her eyes swept across Reimu's statue again.

_Oh, and Merry Christmas to you too, Reimu. I wished you are here to celebrate this holiday with us. The next event coming up would probably be Valentine's Day. I wonder if you had ever loved somebody in Gensokyo? Whatever, you probably never told anybody. Goodnight… I will be back here tomorrow morning._

Nitori looked back at her clipboard and began to disconnect herself from the virtual Gensokyo, but her clipboard gave her an error as she was about to regain consciousness in the Outer World:

**ERROR 1632: UNABLE TO LOGOUT, DESTINATION NOT FOUND.**  
Please contact Kawashiro Nitori for assistance.

Frowning, she tried again, and got the same error message again. _Crap! I can't leave this world! Gotta hope Yukari pulls out that needle again…_

_Destination not found? The program is unable to read my body's hearbeat signals?_

_… What's going on?_

_Did I die in the real world? Impossible, the doctor said I had up to eight years! It's only the seventh, and…_

_'Up to eight years'?_

Kawashiro Nitori fell to her knees and landed sideways on the snow-covered ground near the pond, the electronic clipboard still hanging in midair, awaiting her command. The realization of her own death hit her so hard she had began taking it large breaths of air, despite the environment being virtual. _I've… died? This work… is not complete. And it never will be._

_I died alone in this world… and I'm stuck in here for eternity._

_I'm sorry, everybody… I really wanted all of us to embrace Gensokyo again. Looks like I just didn't have enough time to make this project a success._

_…_

_…_

_…_

_I'm… sorry._

* * *

**A.N.: Take a deep breath if you had been wondering if Nitori died; she didn't. Nitori made a stupid mistake every programmer always did, which was to forget to close a command line while programming. She was working on the commands again after dinner to add the Christmas features into her project. Yukari woke her up on Christmas day before breakfast, saving her from total despair. Nitori made this mistake for another six times before she actually found out, though. Poor Nitori!**

**And no, this isn't going in the direction of Sword Art Online, so cease your criticisms!**

**Apologies if updates take a long time, I'm beginning to attempt characters I'm not exactly too familiar with. For example, Nitori only struck me as someone who is adept with technology, so she was able to do something similar to an MMORPG, Kawashiro style. I did ask some fellows on Let's Danmaku on what Nitori would be doing in a technologically-advanced world, and someone said 'inventor'. This entry here isn't exactly describing her as one, but it's somewhere along those lines.**

**Last but not least, I know I have been straying away from the 'Letter' theme. Even I don't know if this was intended in the first place or not, as every chapter seems to be a complete different theme from my first entry. Hell, maybe this fiction wasn't even meant to be letter-filled in the first place, huh? We shall see.**


	7. Hourai Victim

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

_If there was a way to save you, I would have, believe me._

_That was the promise and oath I swore to more than a millennia ago, on the Lunar Capitol, and it still stands today. If somebody, just somebody, was able to drag you out from the Underground, I would work with all I had to save you._

_You probably won't remember me; we met during that endless night… incident, or whatever you liked to term events as such. In case you have truly forgotten, which wouldn't have mattered anymore, I'm Yagokoro Eirin, Lunar Pharmacist of the Lunar Capitol, seeking refuge from said state in the form of Eientei, within the Bamboo of the Lost, along with my princess Houraisen Kaguya._

_I have already told you my reasons for my part in that… incident, I don't think you will want to hear any of that again, but that doesn't matter. Kaguya's missing when we evacuated from Gensokyo out to Earth. I am probably the only survivor of the attack on Eientei, all alone back in the land of our original exile. I still fear of the discovery of my presence on Earth again; I had Yukari alter the boundaries of my physical state before we left._

_Having one worry lifted from my mind, I set myself back on track and continued in my field of practice; medicine. Yukari convinced me, along with most of us living together with her in a large mansion she claimed to have already owned on Earth long ago, to find some form of income source to support our expenses in this world. Naturally, it dawned on us that we took Gensokyo for granted; it was truly a land of haven for us folks, where our daily lives revolved around tea, spellcard battles and utilizing magic. In this world, money did the talking._

_This wouldn't be my first time on Earth; the way life goes on in this world is not alien to me, nothing has changed over the centuries. I was able to practice medicine again in some large hospital (Yukari told me that you had known the existence of Earth long ago, I'm going to assume you know what a hospital is) out of town, and within two months of our arrival on Earth, I had a handful of patients trusted to me. Most of them have recovered and were discharged from the hospital, but there remains one girl who was still lying on her bed. Mind you, while it may have only been six months since I worked here, this girl probably had been the hospital's resident for almost sixteen years._

_Something about this girl struck me in such a way that even my extensive medical knowledge couldn't answer; the girl was probably in her thirties by now, but she maintained physical features of a young teenager. According to medical records, this was as impossible as Kaguya's Five Impossible Requests. Her long black hair remained the same length as she had those years ago, as claimed by the nurses and past doctors. The condition in which a patient sleeps for such extended periods of time is known as a coma, and even during such, the body would continue in its bodily functions. This girl took me by surprise when she hasn't aged at all. She was the enemy of Time, one who remained untouched by so._

_I was pondering over this girl when I suddenly remembered you, Reimu. What if you were, by any small miracle, still alive down there, sleeping like this girl, awaiting rescue all alone in that hellish underworld? What would you give to retain your youthful beauty if, say, you had to wait for a decade before somebody finally rescues you? Would you still be alive by then? Would you have rather preserved your current self and move on to the afterlife?_

_I must be working too much._

_Yagokoro Eirin  
Year 1, XX Day of the YY Month_

* * *

_I don't usually discuss my patients' conditions with anybody other than those related to my field of work, but a newly warded young girl caught my attention so much, it warranted a discussion with you._

_I wouldn't put it past the fact that she was actually in her mid twenties, but she has the features of someone younger, human-age wise. Somebody found her wandering aimlessly on the road and almost got knocked down by a vehicle while equally aimlessly crossing a stretch of road. She might have sustained minor injuries from the resulting fall, but when I tried to start a conversation with her, I got either empty replies or simply no responses at all at times._

_Upon initial scans of her body, I wrote in the medical report that she was totally fine, but privately, something from the scans scared me; there were some weird growth of veins that were supposedly connected to… appendages on both ankles and somewhere near her spine. I've studied the human body for long enough already, and even the records found in the Lunarian history will tell you that this is abnormal._

_Almost like mutation._

_Over the next two days under my close supervision, other than showing minor resistance to the nurses trying to administer antibiotics into her arm (good thing she showed no allergy reactions to the medicine), she simply laid on her bed and stared out of the window. A neighboring patient's mother, upon learning that nobody knew who her parents or relatives were, out of kindness and pity, bought her a large kitten soft toy, to which she adorably responded and cuddled it like the child she looked like._

_Nothing suspicious, isn't it? Read on, Reimu._

_That very same night, when all the other patients in the children's ward were out for either rehabilitation or garden walks, she had remained in bed, still cuddling the soft toy. I took my seat beside her, expecting her to simply ignore me and continue playing with the toy, when she suddenly stared right at me in the eye. Her stare was extremely mesmerizing; all I remembered was something searching my inner soul and that I had no control over myself to break away from her intense stare._

_All I heard was 'Hourai' in my mind before she broke off herself and continued with her imaginary adventure with the soft toy._

_I… I don't know her! How did she know about me? I was pretty sure Yukari had hidden my Lunarian origins! She's definitely not a Lunarian, but at that time, my mind was in a whirl and I couldn't think properly. As if she read my mind, she looked at me again, but this time I felt nothing, no tingling sensation of something disturbing within my inner self._

_I couldn't believe she actually spoke to me, this time all on her own accord. "It wasn't her fault," she said. "It wasn't her fault, my sis's pets weren't at fault." I asked what she had meant, but all she repeated was that same line. She didn't elaborate any further, neither did she explain who her sister, much less the pets, were._

_The next morning, nurses found her asleep, and when prodded at to wake up for breakfast, she failed to move. Her heartbeat sensor was still functioning, along with every reading showing normal, so they decided that she was still sleeping. Only when I walked over to her bed did she actually stir slightly before opening her eyelids to reveal empty eyes. Again, I asked if she knew who her parents was, because we had decided, on medical grounds, that her condition after the accident on the road was stable and ready to be discharged, but she never answered the question, but thrust out her arms, the soft toy in both hands, as if wanting me to take it._

_As I reached for the toy with a puzzled look, I stopped myself. Stopped because I realized the soft toy now had an additional tail, looking exactly the same as the already-present tail on the soft toy. "My pet," she murmured._

_Nobody knew where she gotten the materials to make that other tail, much less to sew it in and make it look as if the toy had originally came with two tails. Even the mother who had given her the toy had confirmed the kitten only had one tail when she had bought it._

_For the first time in three days, the little girl, whose name we still haven't caught, stepped out of her bed and padded over to the nearby window, where a small crow was perched roosting on the mini garden pot outside. She raised a hand, pointed at it, then turned to me. Only looked at me._

_"My pet. Not her fault too."_

_Reimu, if you still don't get what this is about, neither do I. I still don't see what is the relation between that girl, the word 'Hourai', Chen and Shameimaru Aya. Maybe you can tell me more?_

_Yagokoro Eirin  
Year 2, XO Day of the XO Month_

* * *

_Do you still remember who Remilia is? I was told she was a vampire in Gensokyo, but I'm not too sure, since I seldom leave Eientei without the princess for long. She never struck me as a vampire now, anyway. She has a younger sister living with her in the same room at the moment, though. If they both were vampires, they don't look like it now. I've read all about vampires; ratty accent, torn capes, blood-sucking fangs and a hatred for sunlight. They are none of those, what lies Yukari is spreading!_

**(A.N.: My original letter included boring details about Remilia, something that you can already read about in chapter 3 and 4, so I will be excluding that from this chapter.)**

_So, on every Christmas Eve, this younger sister of hers, known as Flandre, would write her Christmas wish to you, or so I was told, I never really bothered or cared. This time, however, I looked at her wish card on the Christmas tree in the living hall; she wished for her sister to return from work to celebrate Christmas with us. My wish was simply to erase whatever that had happened and return to Gensokyo before your unfortunate… incident underground._

_The next day… it was horrible; we learnt that Remilia had been shot by her own forces, all in the line of duty. Based on medical knowledge of firearms injuries, a wound of that caliber is fatal. Flandre was not supposed to know, but apparently she either overheard us talking about it, or someone told her, or she simply knew something was wrong, whatever, but she was one uncontrollable leak of a water pipe. Her cries and bawling were extremely… haunting. Inhuman. It was at a level that I had never encountered in my life._

_Yukari had begged me to go to the hospital with her, to which I agreed. We left for the hospital together with the police forces in the white car that had came along with the vans. I was seated in the back with her, thinking of every possible remedy for Remilia, while the man in the front seat, Remilia's unit commander, as he had introduced himself as, kept apologizing to Yukari, who kept a calm posture, but in my eyes, her hands were fidgeting nervously on her lap._

_…_

_Can I not describe my experience at the hospital that day?_

_…_

_I felt that I could have done something for her, but upon arrival, all I could do was stare at her limp body. I heard nothing from all around me. Yukari looked as if she was talking to me, shaking my shoulders, wanting to see if I could do anything, but to my senses, nothing happened. I didn't' know what to do._

_An emergency department nurse, probably figuring out I was a doctor, or maybe Yukari told her about me, came to me with a file in hand. I stared at it blankly, not able to make sense of something that I usually only took less than ten seconds to fully understand the report._

_I don't know why I was suddenly so paralyzed at something I had been working with for so long._

_It really reminded me of my first encounter with such._

_All I did was apologized to no one in particular and left, leaving Yukari calling my name behind me._

_And now, here I am, in some small inn far away from the Yakumo mansion, all on my own, still not knowing why I didn't even try to save the poor child. I've got this feeling that somehow Yukari knew where exactly I went after that day, but she didn't show herself or at least try to contact me in any ways. Maybe she's angry with me, or she simply wanted to give me some space?_

_Only today, two weeks after Christmas, did I realize why I dared not try to save Remilia…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_My mind was, unknowingly, fixed on that forbidden solution. The same solution that I had came up with to allow myself to serve my princess for eternity. The very same solution that somebody else, because of my selfishness to allow the princess only to myself, took and became a willing victim._

_The Hourai Elixir._

_Yes, Reimu, that was the only solution to save Remilia, exactly what I had been thinking all along in the car journey to the hospital. But why didn't I want to do it? Simply because…_

_I don't want another victim to fall under the curse of the Hourai Elixir._

_Can you understand the pain of a doctor, she who holds both a cure and a curse in her hands?_

_Yagokoro Eirin  
Year 8, XOXO Day of the XOXX Month_

* * *

"Miss Yagokoro?" a male voice cracked over the phone after a moment.

"Speaking," Eirin answered.

"Miss Yagokoro, it's been almost a year since you came back to work. I-"

"How did you find my address?"

"Miss Yakumo told us what happened, Miss Yagokoro. She gave us you-"

Eirin put back the phone in its cradle, crawled back onto her futon and tried to return to sleep. Looking at the wall clock, it was still seven in the morning in an apartment she had moved into, some two weeks after that day.

Being out in the Outer World all alone, she should have went hungry without money, but somehow Yukari had not cut off access to their funds, and she was somehow able to continue living on her own, even for the months that she never called back to Yukari. _As if Yukari still hoped I would return._

Like the very princess she had served for a millennia, Eirin herself had degenerated into somebody not in education, employment or training (or NEET in short), drinking her nights away while taking aimless walks out on the streets and across the city in the days. She still had enough sense not to fall in with the wrong crowd, although she managed to make some decent drinking partners, one of them claiming she used to have an infinite supply of sake. Eirin hadn't believed her, but with sake drowning her brain in a hopeless wash of alcoholism, both of them shared stupid adventures of their own, cutting themselves away from the real world while together.

Nor did it occur to her that her best drinking pal looked too young to be even drinking.

They were, again, having another bout of drinking the night before, and Eirin was still recovering from her hangover when the second call on her corded phone came in. "GO AWAY!" the Lunarian screamed at the ceiling, but the ringing was insistent; she crawled out from under her bed covers and picked the phone up.

"IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM THAT HOSPITAL AGAIN, I AIN'T GOING BACK!" Eirin roared into the phone before flinging the entire device, cradle and phone, against the plaster wall; wallpaper gave way and the cradle became slightly dented, but, unknown to Eirin, was still functioning.

Nobody called again for the remainder of the morning, and the badly hung Lunarian was able to get her sleep, which didn't last too long; she found herself in street clothes an hour later, found a movie at a local cinema interesting enough to catch her attention and went in alone.

That _one call_ came while she was back in her apartment, about to leave for the alcohol bar. "I'm not going to have a good night spoilt by the likes of you," Eirin gently warned the caller. "I'm giving you ten seconds-"

"Surely you can spare more than that, Eirin?"

_Yukari?_ Eirin repeated that name through the speaker of her phone. "But… but how did you…?"

* * *

Lightning streaked across the night sky, illuminating the streets in a nightmarish black and white flash. From the inside of the mansion, through the closed window, it looked like she was watching a horror movie, courtesy of the rain god. At the same moment, she spied a vehicle pulling away from the curb at her mansion's gate, depositing a slightly tall and thin illuminated figure with an umbrella under the rays of a street lamp, in the middle of heavy rain.

That figure proceeded through her already-opened gates on the stone walkway, past a mini garden, before arriving at her doorstep.

Yakumo Yukari had been expecting her visitor; she left the door unlocked, as her visitor found out when she tried the door handle. A dripping wet figure appeared at her doorway, a small bag in her right hand; the umbrella was either left outside or somehow missing during her short journey from the gates to the mansion itself.

The visitor, apparently familiar with the mansion's layout, immediately reached behind the opened door and flipped a couple of switches; the living hall was bathed in the soft orange glow of chandelier lights, revealing expensive furniture and interior design of top quality and aestheticism. Lounging on a no-less expensive couch was the owner of the mansion, a small black box on a velvet-covered cushion beside her.

"Welcome home, Eirin," Yukari got up to her feet and greeted in her usual tone.

Eirin dripped rainwater across the living hall as she ignored Yukari and went to her destination: a flight of stairs leading _down_ into the basement. At the base of the stairs, she gently opened the double doors, revealing a large workshop lit with fluorescent ceiling lights and the occasional desk lamp on various tables. A large CPU connected to an unpowered computer monitor stood at a corner in a mess of wirings and some other technological items that Eirin could only begin to guess.

The basement windows were open, some of them fitted with ventilation fans, others simply left wide open enough for creatures to intrude. Beneath each window stood gadgets of various types in equally various stages, but one bench of chemical test tubes caught the Lunarian's eye. From afar, she recognized it to be a mild form of tranquilizer, but rarely used in medical practice due to its weak potency and impurity of the chemicals used.

Eirin's eyes landed on some syringes filled with the same chemical on the bench; their metallic tips bore dried bloodstains. _She must have been using these. But for what?_

A soft moan made her turn around; Kawashiro Nitori, whom Eirin almost didn't recognized, laid on a small bed in another corner under covers, her eyes and face scrunched up in some sort of agony. The doctor in her automatically sprung back to life, and in ten seconds she was already at Nitori's bedside retrieving her tools of the trade from the bag she had brought along to the mansion.

"It's the final stage," Yukari's voice boomed into the silent room, only broken by the soft humming of the CPU, causing the Lunarian to look in the direction of the speaker. "It's the eighth year."

Eirin turned back to her new patient. Nitori's hair barely clung to her scalp, her visible cheekbones showing severe malnutrition. She didn't have to guess how the rest of the Gensokyo kappa would looked like without the bed covers. "You do know she's against anyone trying to help her, don't you?"

"I never found out why."

"Then why call me back? I'm done with this!"

"Then why did you come back?"

The question splashed itself on Eirin's face like a bucket of freezing water. "Nine months ago, you gave up on Remilia and disappeared from the medical field," Yukari continued, her voice still remaining unchanged. This was one of her characteristics that made it hard to tell if she's serious or joking under any circumstances. "Now, here lies another patient whose condition you are extremely familiar with."

_She wants me to save Nitori?_

_Really?_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_Did she already know the only choices I have right now?_

As if to read her mind, the ex-Youkai of the Boundaries stepped further into the room and deposited the black box she had beside her on the couch on the bed, directly under Eirin's nose. Her heartbeat increased rapidly as she recognized the black box, its intricate designs now visible under the bright lights in the workshop. "Yukari! How did you-"

"Know about this box?" Yukari hid a small laugh with her palm. "Eirin, Eirin… you never totally eradicated any traces of _it_. That thing still exists, and you had conveniently left it on your table in your room."

"But-"

"You never would, Eirin, nobody would ever completely destroy his or her greatest creation in history."

"But you destroyed Gensokyo-"

"Correction. I only sealed it off."

Stumped, Eirin's mind froze for a short while before dropping her head down, staring at the accursed black box. "Of course," Yukari added. "If you don't want to do that, there's something else in that box for you to use too."

_I won't curse another person._

_I won't._

_Nobody shall have to become another Hourai Victim._

_The Hourai Elixir was my mistake. It should have never been made._

_I was too selfish._

_And now somebody is using this to test me._

_Am I still a soul-filled medicine practitioner, or a black-hearted miser?_

"The choice is yours, Eirin," Yukari turned and left the workshop without even glancing back at the Lunarian.

The same Lunarian stared at her patient, who seemed to not register her presence. _You know what she's going through, Eirin, nothing new to you._ Eirin flipped the accursed black box open with a shaky but tight grip, revealing its contents, and gasped.

In the box were not one, but _two_ vials of liquid. The one that she recognized to be of her own creation, it was sealed tight in a small glass vial that was more than a thousand years old. The other, however, looked pretty recent; the glass vial had small prints that told of its maker's company and address, along with the usual "fragile" logo that adorned most modern glass wares.

Yagokoro Eirin didn't have to test what the newer vial contained; her choices of medicine in the black box was blaring obvious.

_I don't have to curse Nitori._

_This other vial will do._

_Both of them stops her suffering, but their side effects are completely different._

_…_

_…_

_Why am I hesitating?_

_Eirin, you have done this before in the hospital, the right choice would be that newer vial. Stop the patient's suffering. That's your job._

_Do it._

_Take that one._

Eirin listened to her mind as she grabbed the newer vial and, with her other hand that already held a surgical syringe from her bag, filled it with the colorless liquid. Flicking the tip to get rid of any air bubbles in the syringe, she leaned forward and slightly lifted Nitori's left arm from beneath her bed covers; paper-thin skin clung tightly to her bones. _Almost like an old woman._ Nitori seemed not to react to somebody grabbing her arm, but continue in her invisible struggle in her bed.

However, upon noticing that this arm had many other piercings from previous injections, she went over to the other side and grabbed the other arm. Finding it to be free from piercings, Eirin took a deep breath and brought the metallic end of the syringe towards the exposed skin.

_Wait._

_…_

_I need my bag beside me. To stabilize my thoughts._

It was an excuse to prolong her decision. She knew that, but still went ahead and dragged the inevitable further. With her opened bag set nicely beside her, she took another deep breath and brought the needle down again, which at that moment, Nitori chose to strain her body in some spasm. Eirin raised the needle from the body and waited for her patient to settle down before she tried again.

Rain, choosing that very moment, began splattering into the workshop from the open windows; Eirin took the opportunity to extend her hesitation by closing all the windows in deliberate slowness. Another thought crept into her mind as she finished the task.

_Maybe… maybe there's a reason why Yukari called me back home. She wants to save Nitori? Or did Nitori agree to be given a remedy?_

Smiling to herself weakly, she went back down on her knees, retrieved another syringe from her bag and immediately filled it with her life's greatest creation. Repeating the flicking motion, deep breathing and the act of bringing the syringe down, she stopped right before the needle would pierce Nitori's arm.

_Make up your damn mind, woman, what will it be?_

_To save, or to curse?_

_Eirin… _a voice boomed in her head. _Your job is to heal a body's imperfections. That has been your job, your purpose of existence, your duty to keep your princess healthy._

"SHUT UP!" Eirin shouted at no one, angrily releasing the grip on the syringe, allowing it to fall onto her cloth bag, right beside the other syringe. "KAGUYA'S GONE! I HAVE NO MORE PURPOSE IN THIS EXISTENCE!"

_Heh… _another voice, albeit one filled with malice, said. _That's right, it's your own fault for starting this mess. You don't have to bring another victim to join you in your mistakes. Give it to her already!_

_You can't do that!_ The other, yet kinder, voice urged. _You know that's not right. Others before self, remember?_

_Yeah, others before self. Do others a favor by not bringing them down with you._

_Save the girl!_

_Give it to the girl!_

_Save!_

_Give it!_

Eirin finally lost it and started screaming at the top of her voice, ignoring the fact she had a patient whose fate laid in her hands. Scream after agonized scream erupted from her throat, the water works in her eyes following in quick succession.

At that point, a bright flash of lightning seemed to struck a terrible bolt somewhere outside the windows, cracking loud enough to startle the screaming Lunarian. All power were cut off; only an emergency capacitor in one of the overhead lamps supplied minimal energy to its inheritor.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Nitori had not changed her facial features, but her eyes were finally open, staring at the berserk woman. Eirin, through tear-streaked eyes, her hands still cupping her ears from fright from the bolt of lightning, stared back, and lowered her hands.

"D…D…D…" Nitori's weak voice stuttered, her right arm struggling with massive amounts of effort to even raise an inch off her bed. "…do it…" the kappa began panting heavily, having expended large amounts of energy trying to say two words, her arm collapsing back to the bed.

_She… she knows what I was going to do?_

_…_

_…_

Nitori's face and determined spirit to even try to speak to her decided it for her. _Fine._

Eirin looked down at her bag for her two syringes, but under the dim light of the emergency lamp, she couldn't make out which syringe contained which solution.

_Reimu… guide my hand._

Grabbing one of them, she stabbed it into Nitori's right arm and held a thumb to the plunger.

_I'm leaving this all to you, Hakurei miko._

* * *

**A.N.: Took me long enough with this, and I think this should be enough for Eirin's segment. I think it had became extremely dramatic towards the end.**

**So far, apart from Alice's letter, all of them are my depictions of Reimu being somebody who everyone unloaded their problems on. Seems like it to me. It's always "Reimu, help me with this" or "help me with that" or "solve this incident" and so on. I'm glad I'm not Reimu.**

**Last note, two other characters made cameo appearances, maybe you have already picked them up?**


	8. Of Faith and Miracles

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

Yagokoro Eirin withdrew the needle from her frail patient's arm, tossed it aside and saw on the balls of her feet in a kneeling position, waiting for a response from the recipient of the unknown drug. She did not bother to stem the miniscule bleeding from the perforated skin, only to simply stare at Nitori's facial expressions.

_If it contained the Hourai Elixir… well… one drop and she would forget death. A second drop and she would forget illnesses and age. Whatever I had injected into her was probably more than what I had used for myself and that silly Fujiwara girl. Her health should be restored in a moment's time._

_If it's the drug Yukari gave me… I'm sorry Nitori, the pain will only last for a little longer, but you will sleep peacefully after that. A long, long sleep, one that you will never wake up from, but it takes the pain away._

_Anytime now…_

A minute had passed and Nitori still showed no symptoms of either drug. Eirin glanced at her wrist for her electronic watch impatiently and returned her stare to the still-suffering kappa. _It's taking too long! What did I give you?_

_Nitori! Tell me, what did I give you?_

No changes in facial expression.

_Nitori!_

Another minute of wait.

_Tell me, now!_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_Why are you tormenting me?_

_Tell me what I have done!_

It was as if Nitori was drowning Eirin in her own guilt for her decision, as a total of ten minutes had passed and Nitori still hadn't shown the slightest symptoms of either medicine, only to continue straining herself in an inner struggle.

_I must have given her Yukari's drug. Maybe that one isn't so potent after all._

_It must be it. Phew. Time to go back to my apartment._

Convincing herself of doing the right thing, Eirin packed her bag with trembling hands, despite her forced-cool demeanor and strode for the door, not even looking back. _I have done this before. No need to look back, it will happen eventually. I've done my job, I've done it a thousand times._

_So why am I feeling like I did something wrong?_

Yukari was still seated at the same spot, despite having left the couch earlier to poke her head into the basement workshop, sipping a cup of hot tea, when she spied Eirin marching for the still-opened front door. "Leaving already?"

Eirin stood her spot and spun around. "I don't want to do this again, Yukari."

"From your not-so-soft screaming and that wet face of yours," Yukari took another sip of her tea, her voice even. "You must have had a hard time deciding."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Have you not have any faith in your skills?"

Eirin lost her cool and shouted across the hall. "Don't play games with me, Yukari! I have just taken somebody's life today! Can't you imagine what I'm going through right now?" Her fists were balled and shaking with anger; they looked as if the knuckle ends would find their mark on the seated elder's face at any moment. "And don't give me that 'you used to do that anyway' crap!"

Yukari, however, remained silent this time as she savored more of her tea, enraging the Lunarian beyond belief, who sauntered over and slapped the cup of tea out of her hands, sending the tea cup flying. "ANSWER MY QUESTION!" she bellowed into her face.

At that moment, the tea cup, which had been sent flying in the direction of the open door, was caught by a hand that had appeared from outside the mansion. "Whoa, what a welcome for us!" the owner of the hand exclaimed.

Surprised by the unexpected visitor, Eirin spun around to confront the new person.

And froze.

* * *

Kochiya Sanae ran.

And ran.

And continued running, never turning back to look at the figure tracking her down in the forest.

The cool night wind blew against her sweat-soaked clothes from running away, causing her to develop a dry throat from inhaling the cool air, her heavy breathing not helping in any form of soothing the dry feeling in her throat.

Broken roots and fallen trunks threatened at every turn to trip both hunter and hunted, but while luck seemed to be on Sanae's side as she tore through the forest, her hunter also seemed to share the same luck, as if that person was made to run in the jungle._ Gotta get away fast!_

Twice or thrice, she had stepped on hidden mud puddles, splashing the mud on herself, and even one time almost getting into her eye, but she had managed to keep running, the fear of getting caught by her adversary fueling her determination to escape. Her chaser was less than a hundred metres behind her when she had last looked; Sanae's heart began racing at an increased rate as adrenaline pushed her onward.

"Get… get away from me!" Sanae screamed at the shadow in the dark forest.

For the second time, she heard her hunter's female voice. "STOP! YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

"No!"

* * *

_I'm sure it's burnt down by now. It is pretty secluded in the woods, nobody would be around to douse the fire._ Sanae hastened her pace as she made her way back to the shrine.

Sure enough, it had been too late for anybody to save the shrine, as could be seen by local police officers cordoning off the area and preventing people, who had probably heard about the fire and had came to help, from getting too close to the crime scene.

It was already nightfall, and the police had set up strong spotlights to aid in their investigations and she saw medical personnel tending to a young woman dressed in red and white garments. _Damn that miko,_ Sanae silently cursed to herself. _She should have died in that fire! Lucky prick!_

Acting totally normal, as if she was passing by, she merged herself into the small crowd of onlookers to see the fruits of her labor. _One more shrine down. Suwako knows how many of these shrines are there._

A couple of the officers had canines on leash, which were sniffing for any traces of the culprit, something Sanae was sure the dogs would never be able to pick up. _I've taken precautions on this firebombing attempt, they shouldn't be able to trace-_

One of the dogs suddenly perked its tail up straight and seemed to take on an aggressive stance before barking out loud. Guilt rising, Sanae involuntarily tensed. _Did it pick my scent up?_

The canine began sniffing the ground again and followed a trail that led towards the crowd, dead straight for Sanae's position. Fearing that she would be exposed and apprehended, the Moriya shrine maiden edged her way out of the crowd and tried to escape from the crime scene. As she did so, she re-entered the darkness of the nearby woods again, and breathed a sigh of relief.

As she followed the dark stone path back out of the woods, she became aware of two persons ahead of her in the darkness talking softly. Listening carefully while walking past them, she realized it was just another police officer interviewing a possible witness. _Nothing too dangerous, as long as I keep walking-_

"Hey," the male police officer suddenly raised his voice to normal level. Under the soft bath of the full moon above them, Sanae could see him turning his head in random directions, and heard the sharp intakes of breaths. _Sounds like he's sniffing the air._ "Do you smell gasoline?"

"Hmm…" the other voice, now identifiable as a woman, sniffed the air too. "Yeah. Where's that coming from?"

On a reflex, Sanae began discreetly sniffing her own clothes for any traces of the gasoline she had used for her homemade firebomb. As she picked up the hem of her skirt and brought it to her nose, the strong scent of gasoline suddenly shot into her nose, causing her to cry out in surprise. _Damn, I forgot to wash up before coming here!_

A hand suddenly clamped on her shoulders, shocking the shrine maiden again. "Excuse me, are you alright? If you aren't, I would be happy to escort you out of the woods, where we can help seek medical attention for you."

"Uh…"

"There, don't be afraid, I can protect you… hey, that smell seems to be coming from…"

With a shriek, Sanae suddenly thrust her right hand forward and stabbed her pocket knife into what she assumed to be the guts. The police officer cried out in pain and doubled over before crashing onto the stone path. Her heart racing as she panicked, Sanae threw her weapon away and fled into the woods off the stony path, well aware of the other woman who had begun running after her, yelling at her to stop.

* * *

"I know… I know it's… it's you!" her adversary's equally breathless voice called out. _Sounds like she's less than fifty metres behind me!_ "You smelt of gas… back there…! I can smell… it!"

"I… I didn't… didn't… do anything-thing!" she panted.

"Then stop… stop running!"

Above them, a police helicopter roared ahead, a powerful spotlight beaming down at a spot just some distance ahead of the direction Sanae was running in. Wanting to avoid the police, she made a sharp turn to her left and sprinted off in the direction; her hunter seemed to be able to see her in the dark forest and so followed.

_I can't lose her! Where am I going? The town is definitely not this way… I'm lost in the forest._

_Suwako… help me… please…_

As if to answer her prayers, Sanae heard a sharp yelp as her hunter sounded as if she tripped on a log. Taking advantage of the pause, she slowed down her pace to recover, her leg muscles burning, seeming ready to rip apart anytime. Looking back again, she saw no silhouette chasing her and so took cover under thick foliage.

A few curses later, Sanae heard her adversary sprinting in her direction again, so she laid still under the leaves, hoping whoever who was chasing her would not find her in the darkness. Sure enough, the sounds of leaves being crushed underfoot crackled past her and soon faded away as the chaser put more distance between herself and her intended target.

Sanae laid under the foliage for five minutes, which were the five most fearful minutes of her life, even beating the moments when Usutho attacked them in Gensokyo. Her ears listening carefully for returning footsteps, she quietly tried to brush away the foliage, intending to track her way back and, hopefully, make it out of the forest without getting caught.

A hiss on her left made her blood go cold. _A snake. Go away, please… go away-_

Without another moment, she felt two fangs sink into her right thigh, causing her to scream involuntarily in pain. Her high pitched scream echoed loudly throughout the forest all around her, Sanae quickly covered her mouth, hoping nobody had heard it. _Should I hope nobody heard that? Or should I hope somebody heard it and rescue me before I die here, even at the cost of getting arrested for what I had done?_

The answer to her mental question came in the form of leaves being crushed again, heading dead straight in her direction. _No… gotta run…_

Sanae managed to keep running for less than twenty seconds before the venom, unknown to Sanae, of the snake began coursing rapidly through her bloodstream, paralyzing her body with each step she took. As her pace slowed, her adversary caught up easily, and when she fell onto the grass, the police helicopter ahead happened to sweep its powerful spotlight across her. Within that split second, the light illuminated the forest all around her and she caught sight of two distinct colors on the clothes her hunter was wearing: red and white.

_A miko? Of course, it is my divine retribution. I have been harming shrine maidens ever since I was here. Reimu must have sent this miko… I deserve this… I deserve whatever that's coming next…_

_But will I die before it happens?_

_Reimu, what are you playing at?_

_If the log was Suwako, the miko being you, was the snake Kanako?_

_Suwako saved me. Kanako wants to kill me. And now you are trying to bring me to justice._

_What will my ending be?_

"There… there you are!" her hunter's shadowed face appeared above her own, grabbing her by her clothes and somehow lifting her up.

"Help…" Sanae begged with a weak voice into the shadowed face. "Help… me… snake…"

"Sanae?" the breathless voice turned from hostile to surprise. "Sanae? Is… is that… is that really you?"

The world around her began spinning as the venom progressed in its destructive work, shutting down her organs and muscles, her own heart betraying her body by speeding up the process. She had already lost all feeling on her left leg; she felt her brain slowly losing consciousness. Her adversary was frantically shouting something at her, shaking her violently, but she could not make them out clearly. Before she fell into total darkness and silence, she managed to catch one word that her hunter had spoken.

"… … … Mokou!"

* * *

_…_

_…_

_Huh?_

_…_

_Her eyes are moving!_

_Get the doctor!_

Kochiya Sanae slowly opened her eyes; the white tiles of a ceiling in a room greeted her. Excited voices filled her ears, but she ignored them, choosing to get up from what she had assumed to be a bed, but found that her hands wouldn't move.

Slowly glancing to the right, she found her wrist cuffed to the side of a hospital bed, her left sharing the same fate. _I… I'm alive?_

"Sanae!" the same voice in the forest whispered from her left. Looking over, she saw the speaker's face and immediately recognized it; Fujiwara no Mokou. And it finally dawned on her that the miko she saw in the forest was not a miko, but Mokou's usual outfit that she had been wearing since her days in Gensokyo. _Why would Mokou be in the forest? _"You're awake!"

"I…"

"Relax, you are still weak. Thank Reimu I managed to get you out of the forest in time, or you would have gone to join her."

"If you would excuse me, madam," a male voice told Mokou. "We have an investigation to-"

"It's… it's me," Sanae whispered hoarsely. "I'm responsible."

"Sanae, why?" Mokou gripped her cuffed hand.

Tears formed in the eyes of the ex-wind priestess of Moriya Shrine as she admitted her crimes against the shrines and their miko near Lake Suwa to a shocked Mokou and the investigation officer in her hospital ward.

* * *

_Reimu… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…_

_These onbashira-celebrating shrines here… they remind me of Moriya Shrine. And whenever I think of Moriya Shrine, I would remember Kanako and how everything happened because of her! Kanako was the culprit for Gensokyo's downfall!_

_A few nights before those evil spirits began sprouting out from beneath the surface, I overheard both of my goddesses arguing in the next room from mine. From what I heard, Kanako was insisting on utilizing nuclear energy to modernize Gensokyo, just as what the Outer World, or now we know as Earth, did. She said it would bring a lot of benefits to Gensokyo, and that life would improve for the vast majority._

_Suwako was against her proposal, claiming unforeseen disasters would befall on us if Kanako went ahead with her ideas. She said that Gensokyo simply wasn't ready for modernization like Earth was, and that magic still ruled Gensokyo. A great leap forward into modernization would be too fast for us, and it would disrupt the flow of technology and defeat every single purpose of Gensokyo, which was to be a safe haven for youkai, away from the humans of the Outer World._

_I remember not being able to sleep that whole night as I kept hearing their angry voices. Finally Suwako left the room and it was the last time I heard from her for the next few days. The next morning, after attending to Kanako, she told me to stay put in the shrine while she went out to 'settle some business'. I asked if she was going to meet the kappas, but she refused to answer me. She, too, disappeared shortly._

_On the afternoon of the day the news of your death came, Suwako finally appeared at our shrine, telling me how Kanako actually did the worst thing possible; getting that hell raven underground to merge herself with the divine flame god in the deepest reaches of Former Hell to be able to start nuclear fission… whatever it was. Suwako told me something went wrong with Kanako's plans and the hell raven had begun attacking Gensokyo instead of going along with the plan._

_At that moment, that very hell raven struck at Moriya Shrine. As I stood at the front door of my shrine, frozen to the ground in surprise and shock, Reiuji Usutho, the name of the cursed hell raven, fired her arm cannon at me. At the last possible second, my goddess leapt into the line of fire, taking the hit for me._

_Suwako was a goddess, right? The Goddess of Earth?_

_I didn't believe what I saw; Suwako's body disintegrated in front of my eyes!_

_I didn't dare to move, I couldn't move if I wanted. My very own goddess, whom I served with my life, whom I loved more than Kanako, disappearing in front of me! A goddess was as strong as the faith she have from her worshippers…_

_And then I realized people probably lost faith in us when they heard Kanako being the culprit of the disaster. At that moment, I had also lost faith in my goddesses; this was probably why Suwako had disappeared._

_Usutho didn't seem to bother trying a second attack at me and instead took off in another direction. I don't know how long I stood at my gate, staring out dumbly for hours maybe?_

_A nekomata suddenly arrived at sunset, pulling me along with her. Introducing herself as one Chen, she claimed to know you, and that it was your instructions to gather everybody at Mayohiga for an exodus out of Gensokyo. I didn't know if I should believe her, but she dragged me along without hearing my protests. As we trekked through the lands, I could see fires burning in the far horizon, even the trees around me seemed shriveled._

_I don't remember what happened as we trekked along the way, because Usutho reappeared and blasted the ground below me. I think I got knocked out, and what seemed to be hours, or even days later, I found myself near Lake Suwa in the Outer World._

_I recognized it right away; it was as tranquil as it was before we moved into Gensokyo. I turned around, but saw no signs of Chen. Maybe she had rescued me? I don't know, there's nobody else that I recognized all around me; I was alone in this world. Maybe Suwako was guiding my feet, but I felt myself being pulled on a road that led to a small town near the lake._

_In the town, everyone looked human enough, confirming that this place was really Earth, but they were wearing clothes I have never seen, probably something way ahead of our time. I spotted something I recognized; red and white miko wear on a lady. I supposed she was a miko, so I followed her till we arrived at her shrine. And gasped._

_It was a shrine, alright, but it has an onbashira! I couldn't believe it, the tradition lasted! I felt so happy that something like this could last even into the future ages!_

_…_

_Why was I even happy?_

_My own goddess was gone, there's nobody to witness and celebrate this feat with me._

_How did you live so long with that?_

_Suddenly, for some reasons within me, I began to hate myself. I… I… I…_

* * *

Mokou looked up from her pen and paper as Sanae began hyperventilating in her seat. The prison warden stepped forward to intervene while calling for assistance over her walkie talkie. Being unable to directly interfere with a prisoner, Mokou could only watch as Sanae began mumbling incoherently to herself while seeming having troubles breathing.

"Sanae! Get a hold of yourself!"

It was four months after Kochiya Sanae had pleaded guilty to criminal offences against the shrines in the Lake Suwa area, in addition to assault on a civil servant, and was sentenced to imprisonment. Mokou had kept up with a monthly visit to her, knowing of nobody else who would. On the first three visits, Sanae had not spoken much but simply gave curt answers whenever Mokou tried to talk to her.

However, on the fourth, Sanae had suddenly requested to want to send a message to Reimu. Mokou herself wasn't too sure if Reimu's rival really wanted to write to her, or simply get something off her chest. Glad that Sanae was finally wanting to lighten up, the immortal had happily obliged.

And so when she saw no fruitful results from the warden's attempts to calm her down, Mokou decided to try another method. "Sanae, why can't you forgive Kanako?"

The struggling convict ceased hyperventilating and stared, with stressed and tear-streaked eyes, at the person sitting across her at the table. "I know, Kanako was the root cause of the disaster that befell Gensokyo," Mokou said, herself getting weird stares from the prison warden. _She probably thinks we are both mad. I hope I don't get thrown into a mental asylum after this._ "Those shrines, they remind you of Moriya Shrine, didn't they?"

Sanae nodded meekly, casting her eyes downwards at her feet.

"And Moriya Shrine reminds you of Suwako."

Another nod.

"And Kanako."

For three seconds, Sanae did not respond, but finally gave a slight nod of her head. Any signs of her earlier struggles had ceased, only sweat from her exertions remained. The prison warden, at Mokou's signal, stood back to her position near the steel door, ever keeping a wary lookout for new signs of struggling. "But those same shrines you vandalized, those miko you have hurt, they were innocent."

"A god… exists if they receive faith…" Sanae said.

"And all you wanted was to prevent the gods from existing?"

"Why… why were you… in the forest?"

"Answer me my question, Sanae."

"No… answer mine. Why were you there?"

Mokou closed her eyes as she considered how she should reply. "I am the guardian of the very shrine you torched. I would do anything to protect it."

"Why… why would you do that?"

"Because Reimu had forgiven me."

"'Forgiven'? What did you do?"

"I did not protect the humans in..." Mokou eyed the frowning prison warden. "Our homeland. Reimu's giving me a second chance."

"A… second… chance…?"

Mokou nodded. "It's to make up to her, although after what had happened, I don't know if I would be able to face her if we ever met again."

"Twelve… twelve shrines… do you think Reimu will forgive me?"

"You had your reasons, right? You said that you didn't want something like..." Mokou eyed the warden again. "_That_ to happen again."

Sanae only nodded in agreement.

* * *

_I don't want another Kanako to bring a disaster to this world. I won't take any chances that Kanako is somewhere in this world too, seeking an opportunity to garner faith and once again bring her selfish desires across the land. I would have to stop any gods from rising._

_Even if my dearest Suwako was one of them._

_That… that's why I did that._

_I have nothing against any of the miko, but I wanted to get the message across. To stop them from worshipping any gods of any kind. Stop people from giving faith to the gods they believed in._

_Because nobody deserved the bad ending we had._

_Blame me if you want, but there's nothing else I can do. If I could have taken your place as the one who sacrificed herself for our home, I will gladly do so. After all, I deserve the death for my own failures to stem Kanako's plans. True, I wouldn't be able to do much against my own goddess, but at least I could have tried…_

_…_

_…_

_I still cry for Suwako today. The woman that I have always thought of as my own mother…_

_But Reimu, can you tell me how you managed to stay strong despite being all alone in that shrine? Without a god, without any faith? Is it, by any chance, a miracle on your part? I believe in miracles! In fact, I'm pretty sure one day we will meet again, and when we do, enlighten me._

_Then, and maybe then, I would finally understand what the true ending of my life will be._

_Can you do that for me? Mokou here says you have given her a second chance, what about me? I'm trying to turn over a new leaf for myself, Mokou has convinced me the error of my ways. I've been a good girl all these while, I deserve one more chance._

_Pretty please? See you soon!_

_Kochiya Sanae  
P.S.: You have worked too hard Reimu, it's time to rest. May we one day meet in paradise again._

* * *

**(Year 8)**

"I still can't believe you had to mention my name in your letter," Mokou said as the ex-miko exited through the gates, welcoming her back to the world.

"You are the only person I know in the Outer World," Sanae smiled, not looking back to the compound she had been forced to acknowledge as home for the past five years or so. _Don't look back once you are out of the gates, Sanae, you don't have to miss this place. Forget that you are ever here, and look forward to a new start for yourself._

"Don't look back," Mokou repeated her thoughts.

"You are looking too pretty here," Sanae giggled. "How did you get those clothes from living in the forest?"

"Actually, I stopped living in the forest after you burnt down that shrine."

"Where did you go?"

"Well," Mokou scratched her head as they walked along the path leading to the nearest main road. "The miko that I saved talked too much about what I did for them. The locals in the town insisted I live among them in return. They rebuilt the shrine in that forest and told me I could start working there as a security guard if I wanted to."

_The warmth of a family, even if it's people you don't know. I guess that's what I wanted after all._

"Something that I said?" Mokou turned to face the quiet girl.

"Nope, just thinking."

"Anyways, where do you intend to go, now that you are a free person?"

"I… I don't really know," Sanae admitted, staring at the ground below her as she walked. "I can't just live with you in that town, can I? Not after what I did."

"That's true."

"Well," she forced a smile. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Of course."

"Where?"

Mokou grabbed her hands, causing Sanae to gasp in surprise. "Where _everybody_ is."

"_Everybody?_"

"I found them. Yukari and the others."

"But… how?"

"Miracle," Mokou grinned as she replied.

* * *

"There's no miracle!" Eirin yelled at the immortal and her partner. "How… how did you find your way here?"

"Like I said, a miracle. I saw you on the road two years ago and tailed you all the way back here," Mokou shrugged. "Pretty simple, if you ask me, nothing complicated."

"So why didn't you show up earlier?" Yukari asked. "For all I know about you, you probably thought you would find Kaguya here."

"I have found another reason for my existence. Kaguya is no longer part of my world. And I wanted to wait for Sanae's release before coming together."

"Well, have fun then," Eirin got up from her couch and headed for the door.

"Eirin," Yukari called out. "Are you really giving up?"

The Lunarian, again, stopped in her tracks. "You have heard Sanae's story. She may have erred, but she never gave up," the Boundary Youkai continued. "Sanae believes in miracles, and is still finding the ending for herself."

"It will take you a lifetime, girl," Eirin snapped at Sanae. "Don't be foolish, what's gone is gone! You will need a miracle for that to happen!"

"Even so, I believe I will find it, one day," the lime-colored hair girl replied.

"Why are you so stubborn?"

"That question, I throw it back to you," Yukari cut in before Sanae could answer.

Target acquired, target hit, Eirin could be seen considering that question herself. For a short moment, nobody said anything else, but when Eirin began to slowly turn around and faced the staircase to the basement, Yukari knew the Lunarian had been convinced that miracles could happen, with or without the Hourai Elixir.

_Because sometimes, all you need is a little faith in yourself._

_If a goddess feeds solely on faith, she will lose faith in herself._

_Without faith, she is incapable of moving on._

_Miracles do exist, but it takes a miracle for a miracle to happen._

Unknown to the current occupants of the Yakumo Mansion, these words floated in the wind that blew through the front door from a distant voice that nobody could hear.

* * *

**A.N.: Who says Sanae is a good girl?**

**And once again, whatever Sanae said is based on her own judgment, much like Patchy thought about life.**

**I'm leaving this confusing chapter, along with Nitori's fate, as a cliffhanger for a future chapter. However, if there's any part that you felt I could have made clearer, please do not hesitate to PM me about it. As of this note, I'm still trying to think of better ways to put certain parts of the story clearer to the reader.**


	9. Invitation to Another World

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

**Disclaimer: The author will not be responsible for your safety should you attempt something like this in the story. THIS IS ONLY FICTION. Please take care of yourself and remain rational in your acts after reading this particularly long entry of 'Letters to Reimu'. Have a nice day!**

_I feel so lonely._

_Why did you fail? You were 'The Shrine Maiden' of Gensokyo, weren't you? Nobody was supposedly able to beat you, but why? Why was a youkai finally able to defeat you?_

_This is all your fault, Reimu. I'm now all alone, thanks to your pathetic display of strength in the times of need. So you thought you were the best? All those 'youkai extermination specialist' crap you ranted about yourself? Definitely not. Never before, and never after!_

_I'm now lost in the Outer World with nobody to care for me. The only person I have ever cared for, she's no longer with me, all thanks to your failure! Give me back the people I could only care for in my life! I hate you._

_I hate you, Hakurei Reimu._

**_I HATE YOU!_**

* * *

_Don't think for a moment that I have forgiven you after a few weeks, because I still loathe the very mention of your name. I'll go insane if I kept everything in my heart, so I'm writing this down and burning every one of them to the other side of the world for your reading pleasure once I get the opportunity to do so._

_These few weeks have been miserable. Travelling by foot? What did both you and Yukari see in this world, cretin? There are so many men out here, I'm feeling very insecure, and I just can't blast them away with danmaku like I used to! So what if danmaku taught us to read patterns in the time span of a snap of fingers? A crazy man just pulled some weird hand-held cannon _(**A.N.: a gun**) _and shot it at me before I could do anything, but thanks to my lithe self, I avoided getting hit._

_The men here… they are lowlifes! Is intimate pleasure the only thing these sorry excuses for humans ever enjoy from a suffering victim of a nuclear catastrophe? It's always money for this, money for that, and to get money, they want pleasure from me._

_No way am I going to have to stoop so low to survive. I rather risk getting shot at while stealing than to lose my sanity and dignity as a girl._

_And neither do I need Yukari's help, especially when she mentioned you had a part in whatever mansion she claimed to own in this world. I do not need anybody's sympathy for my sorry self, especially when I had no part to play in my downfall of my life. I will live my life in my own way, without somebody looking over my shoulder every five minutes._

_Are you feeling all at ease in the afterlife, even when a poor soul like me is struggling to survive in the shadowy hollows of the brutal environment? I'm not exactly weak and inadaptable to new circumstances as you would have thought, my 'dear friend'. How cruel of you to simply shirk your responsibilities as 'The Shrine Maiden' and leave everyone else stranded!_

_How did you even become a miko in the first place, anyway? By birth rights? Fate? Yukari's boundary manipulation? If it's the latter of the latter, why couldn't she have simply altered the boundary of life and death and saved everybody from exodus from Gensokyo?_

_Gensokyo was our home, it belonged to us, just as it was to you._

**_Did you not remember that fact when you decided to call it quits?_**

* * *

_I killed my first victim in the Outer World today._

_This bastard tried to bind my wrists together with some metal cuffs for stealing from that bakery in town. I was hungry and had nothing to eat for the week, and that fat man called the cops on me. One managed to follow my trail to the back alleys, where I smashed his skull into his brains after pretending to surrender myself. Fat chance._

_I've became a thief, a far cry of my former self, Reimu, and I don't need to remind anybody who the root cause of this is. I never wanted to be a thief, but my hunger pangs reign over my dignity and my mind agrees._

_Who are these people, calling me a 'small girl'? They don't know who they're messing with! So what if I looked like those school-going brats, all decked in their unsightly revealing outfits and ready to stoop low enough on the human scum level to please men for money? I don't do that, and I won't. My dress has been shredded and burnt in many places even before coming to the Outer World, but I still wear those rags. What other choice do I have?_

_I never had to be hungry in Gensokyo, and nobody had to be, too. You could always find food anywhere in the wild if you had some knowledge, but in this world, everything seems to be tainted. Rats scurry around as if they owned the place, collection points for rubbish turning a once-clean corner of the neighborhood into a hell hole fit for garbage like me, as someone had taunted me once._

_I am garbage. I have no family, no money, no friends._

**_But if I'm really garbage, then you are thrash._**

* * *

_In case you were hoping that I was already dead, I'm saddened to announce the opposite; I've found shelter._

_Not the best place, but it works. I wandered around and found myself in the company of some university students in their school dorm. The place looks old when compared to whatever I have seen so far, but having come from Gensokyo, this is manageable._

_I'm beginning to have second opinions about the males of the Outer World. This lot here seems a lot friendlier, more humble and, like me, some of them are homeless. The walls and rooms are in total need of repair, personal belongings and thrash strewn all over the place, almost an Outer World version of Marisa's shack, but they had modern facilities like a working bathroom with… stuff that Nitori used to tinker with. It makes me wonder if that kappa had been in contact with humans on this side all the while._

_Initially, a girl spotted me near their territory, which almost made me draw out my weapons, but she didn't seem to notice my hostility and instead politely asked if I was homeless. I don't know how she had figured that out, probably from the sight of my tattered dress, which had been on me for two years since our exodus, but even while keeping my guard, I told her that I was, indeed, homeless._

_She must have thought I was being shy and took me to her friends, who were mostly males. In fact, I hardly saw any other girl other than this particular one, who looked to be pretty popular in their territory for some reasons. Despite knowing myself, I allowed them near me, and surprisingly none of them proved to be the men that I have encountered so far. It was like stepping into a group of strangers and suddenly becoming one of them._

_They told me this particular school dorm accepted just about anybody at a ridiculously low rent. The sole 500 yen coin that I had managed to find during my wanderings was almost enough for two months, they said. However, one of the guys among them came up with an offer, to which all of them agreed to: help them with the cooking and he will pay my rent._

_What other choice do I have? At least these guys weren't asking for intimate pleasure in return, or even being indecent with me around. I gladly took it up, knowing that I used to do cooking back in our old days, anyway._

_Here I am, two weeks after my first encounter with the girl, and I am already good friends with majority of the students here. All of them wanted to know where I came from, but I don't know if I should break the truth to them; after all, who are they to pester me with my past?_

_It's all good here, Reimu._

**_You will NEVER destroy me._**

* * *

_The days passed quickly, and soon I am beginning to lose my friends here._

_I'm feeling jealous, only because they get to move on other graduation, while scum of the world, such as myself, has to stay and call it my new home. I've learnt that while there are homeless ones among them, most of the students here chose this squalor due to high costs of living, and they had absolutely no reasons to carry on living like this once their tenure in the school is up. In fact, most of them came from average-income families. For the once-and-still socially dead, this is my permanent home._

_The run-down dorm isn't as bad as it first looked to be once I got used to it. It stinks of everything that should stink (myself included, which was before I found shelter here), but the roof holds against natural elements. I am a living proof of the shelter-worthy dorm; I stayed throughout all four seasons throughout the three years I am here, while most of the other students left for home for vacations or traveling. The other homeless people, of course, kept me company throughout those times._

_My friends would return from their holidays with homemade food brought from all over Japan and they would share them with me. Nobody shared anything with me back in Gensokyo, and I think maybe the humans here also have their good points, despite whatever I had experienced during my first two years in the Outer World (which they called 'Earth'). These foods are really great, but if only I had known to make these during the good old days…_

_But this was to come to an end soon; my friends, all of them, mostly those whom I had met on my first day in the school dorm, are to graduate from school in two weeks time. The new ones who swallowed enough of themselves to move into this dorm recently aren't as warm as my current batch of friends are, some of them even giving me 'hungry' looks._

_One of these friends is the same man who has been paying my rent for the past three years, and… I think we might actually like each other a lot. He's always complimenting the food I prepare for all of them daily, bringing me gifts and taking really good care of me. I don't know if it's just being grateful for my cooking, for these guys had been telling me that sometimes they were too tired to cook after school, but I believe it's more than just this._

_I first had this strange feeling, something not felt in Gensokyo before, when he smiled at me as he left the dorm on his first vacation home with most of the others. Throughout summer, I kept yearning for his presence, and somehow could not contain my joy when he finally returned weeks later. He was back a week early before the others, claiming he needed time to rest up for the next semester in the school, and giving me my first and unexpected gift: a new dress and other new-looking clothes to replace my current worn-out dress._

_We spent that one week in the city, in which the name I couldn't really remember. Went to what is known as a cinema here, which was my first real encounter with the stuff Nitori loved working on, had some great food and lots of fun. He didn't seem too enthralled by all the stuff they had in the city, but somehow, I got the feeling that he was just doing it for me._

_After school started, it was business as usual; the dorm's usually quiet during the days, then bustling with gaming activities at night. I continued preparing the food for all of them, and got to enjoy all the attempts at a musical event similar to the Prismrivers. It wasn't as flawless as the sisters, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I found myself beginning to like their version of music, known as 'rock' and 'trance'._

_A year or so after I joined the dorm, some of the seniors then graduated and left us; the group of people I knew suddenly became smaller. As new people came in, I became on my guard once again, but whenever I caught sight of him_, _my heart stopped pounding and I become calm all over again._

_All in all, we had good days during his school years. In two weeks time, I'm going to lose him forever; he is going back to his hometown in a far-away state, as he had shown me on a map of Japan. It's going to be really hard without his presence; I feel as if something was tearing yet another piece of the half of me that was left after I escaped from Gensokyo._

_And then I will think of you. Come to think of it, I had gradually lost my hatred for you. True, it was due to your sloppy work that threw all of us out of our home, but I think there's so much more to a life outside of daily danmaku and incidents. Perhaps you thought you would have wanted this life, too?_

**_What exactly do you want, Reimu?_**

* * *

_… and so this place became to be known as such, hmm_, the young girl took a sip from her mug of juice before closing the book. _Such a strange and eerie place, definitely not a destination I would go, but…_

_This place has been appearing in my dreams since two months ago. Something's calling out to me from that forest. Of course, I wouldn't have known which forest, but the hints are getting clearer with each dream; they all culminated in death. Was… whatever that was calling out for me seeking my death? Whatever have I done?_

_I'm simply a librarian in this university, and had been one since eleven years ago._

_My world revolved around books, not sinful acts of greed, ambition and lust._

_…_

_Or have I found something in these books that I have shouldn't?_

"Miss?" a student rapped the table to catch her attention, a book already set on the counter.

"Uh?" the girl looked up from her reverie. "Oh… uh… card please?"

* * *

Locking the library doors, the seemingly-young librarian began her nightly duties of cleaning up the entire university library, sorting and cataloguing books, and rearranging all the furniture students had left in a messy state. It took hours every night, but she had never complained, rather taking it as a hobby than to lose her job and go hungry all alone in this world.

_Being in a school sure does wonders. I begin learning more than I ever had before in Gensokyo, and all of these books could have had been a good addition to the Viole. I've opened my eyes wider, grasped onto any opportunities to increase my knowledge of my old homeworld and understood humans better._

_And schools usually have outdoor activities. Not one for such events, but at least I've become physically stronger. No longer do I even have problems getting up from the bed or even walking long distances. While I no longer have Koakuma to help me with these books during closing time, at least now I can manage everything on my own._

_I've become independent. Stronger. Wiser. And seemed to have not aged one bit._

_But one must never get too much ahead of oneself._

_All of us have our limits._

_Everybody._

_As do I._

_But one must never be afraid to take challenges head on. Weaknesses comes only when one shies away from it. Which is why…_

_I, Patchouli Knowledge, am going to undertake this expedition to this forest. All my research, my investigations, they lead only to this one place in the world. Surrounding a portion of the base of a mountain is this lush patch of green from an eagle's eye view on the peak of a very tall hill. That is my destination. Whatever that is calling out to me, it has to be within that forest._

_The photos and images I have gleaned through during the past month seemed to match whatever I had seen in my dreams. The trees, the serenity of the forest, untouched by humanity. I have my doubts of the accuracy of my information, as this place is definitely across the ocean, in 'the Land of the Rising Sun', as they called it 'Japan'. If I end up in the wrong forest, I would have simply wasted money and time, and I don't exactly have much of the former._

_It seems… this is becoming like poker. A wager, on my life, had been placed. I raised the stakes with my confidence in my knowledge, and then doubled it when I've decided to throw in my personal savings for this trip. It became an all-in instantly when, just a few hours ago, I had finally found the name of this forest, and the reputation it has, a sign that I might never come out of it alive._

_After all, Aokigahara Forest is well known to be haunted by vengeful spirits of the dead._

* * *

_Patchouli looked all around her; twisting networks of vines seemed to obscure her vision at every direction. The forest was so thick, light could hardly penetrate through the lush canopy and so casted black holes of shadows in many areas._

_She was lost; her compass had begun to malfunction shortly after she got off the regularly used trails left by other explorers. Through the small cracks of sunlight that made it past the canopy, she saw that even the sun would not last long; it was almost dusk._

_I have to get out of here, she thought to herself desperately. Aokigahara isn't one place I want to spend a night in, all alone. Choosing a random direction, she began trekking through the harsh uneven jungle floor, hoping that it led her back to one of the used trails. I should have stayed with the track as they had advised, she scolded herself mentally._

_Without warning, her left ankle got caught in a vine, tripping her over and causing her to fall face first… right into the empty gaze of a rotten skull. Shrieking in abstract horror, Patchouli backed away as fast as she could on all fours, but it seemed as if the vines all around her were suddenly coming to life. They looped around her ankles and wrists, preventing her from escaping._

_The skull seemed to float in front of her eyes, and as it did, the vines started lifting the poor, screaming librarian into the air. Looking upwards, she saw a noose hanging from a thick branch high above the forest floor, and it seemed that it was the destination of her nature's ascension. Resisting with all her might, she tried to break free of the surprisingly strong grasps while desperately twisting her head as far away as she could, but failed._

_The floating skull was still in front of her; the empty eye sockets seemed to bulge when it shouldn't have been able to, and suddenly Patchouli found herself being forced towards the death loop. The vines gave no signs of relenting as her body was strangely brought towards the noose. As her neck came within inches of the noose, Patchouli finally gave up and accepted her fate. She felt the base of her chin rest softly on nylon before the vines on her limbs suddenly released their grip, her body weight suddenly becoming the victim of gravity-_

* * *

"Mukyu!" Patchouli uttered a surprised cry. Two hands quickly reached up to her neck and felt all around the skin; no nylon ropes threatened to strangle her to death through asphyxiation, and she breathed out in relief, even as she continued panting like a dog under the hot sun.

Sweat still pouring from her forehead, she wiped it away with the sleeve of her windbreaker. Tears had started pooling in her eyes from her frightening nightmare; she quickly rubbed them away with her thumb…

… and realized that she was, somehow, still floating. Her body, at first, rose, even while she was sitting in a chair, then dropped slightly before rising again. _As if the entire chair was breathing on its own-_

And then she remembered; she was on a commercial aircraft bound for Japan, the aircraft bobbing up and down gently against the air current outside. _I'm not liking these dreams. It's haunting me to my very soul. I have to find out what's bothering me soon, and why am I always dreaming about the forest._

Checking her flight information on the screen, she realized that her flight was almost ending, and that she was already somewhere above Japan. Looking out of the window, for she had been assigned a window seat, she saw a large mountain in the distance. _That should be Mount Fuji_. A clear plastic folder in her carry-on bag had some printed notes and maps about her upcoming travel; it was indeed the mountain she was headed for.

_And that forest at the base, that definitely has to be Aokigahara Forest._

_Is that why I had those nightmares, even on board?_

* * *

"Good afternoon, miss," a person Patchouli assumed to be a village local, greeted her with a hearty loud voice as she entered through the rural village's gates. She had streaks of green among her brown hair, an obvious attempt at punk style, and was just about as short as she was in height. "Are you joining us today?"

"Huh?" Patchouli raised her eyebrows. "'Joining' you?"

"Yeah, it's the annual sweep. Didn't you come all the way here for this?"

"Not really?"

"Let me guess," the local, a woman, had a hand rested on her chin, the other hand cupping the elbow as she entered deep thought. "You are headed for Aokigahara Forest?"

"How did you know about that?" Patchouli asked.

The woman laughed in return, giving her a knowing look. "Three types of people pass through these gates: them being the ones who wish to explore the majestic Aokigahara Forest, the ones who are on a treasure hunt of notorious sorts, and finally, the ones who will make their final journey in life in the forest. You don't look like a treasure hunter to me, though."

"Well…"

"Please reconsider your actions," the woman suddenly turned serious as she lowered her voice, laying a roughened hand on Patchouli's shoulders.

"What do you mean?" Patchouli gave a confused look. "I really need to get to the forest."

"Listen, there are other ways to resolve matters," the woman continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Think about the people who brought you up."

_I don't remember my own parents, but wait! Does she believe I was going into that forest to commit suicide?_ "I think you are making-"

"There's somebody here today who can help you," the woman dropped the hand and grabbed her left hand, pulling her along as she walked in a different direction. "A monk from a distant temple of is also here today for the annual sweep. Her role is to give blessings to the dead and push them to rest in peace, but she can still help you."

Patchouli allowed herself to be led as the two of them walked briskly towards a small gathering of policemen and regular folks, all dressed for trekking into the forest. Patchouli herself was similarly dressed appropriately, having left most of her travel belongings in a hotel in Tokyo and travelling out to the village with a smaller bag.

Among the regular folks stood out another woman in black and white dress, sporting long brown hair. _Those colors remind me of Marisa, except without that pointy hat and apron._ The Marisa-like monk smiled as she recognized the woman leading Patchouli to her. Making a few gestures, apparently about Patchouli wanting to end her life, especially with the finger-throat-cutting gesture, the woman gently pushed Patchouli towards the monk before bowing and leaving them alone.

The two of them exchange formal Japanese greetings, but it was Patchouli who initiated conversation. "What kind of monk are you? Your dress looks-"

"Foreign?" the monk replied in a tone hinting that she was almost hitting her forties. If she had taken offense to Patchouli's abrupt comment, she did not show it. "I wouldn't blame you, but this is how I dress normally at my temple. Were you expecting saffron robes?"

"Uh… kinda?"

The monk nodded sagely. "You seemed troubled."

"I _am_ troubled… by that forest."

Patchouli's reply surprised the monk. "Wait, you didn't come all the way here-"

"I have enough sense not to end my life meaninglessly, thank you. I think that villager had misunderstood me." _Not after what I promised Reimu…_

"That woman doesn't live here, she's one of my regular worshippers at my temple. But enough of that already, I was wondering if you would join us in the sweep today. Wasn't it your intention to enter the Aokigahara Forest anyway?"

"It is. I need to find out what's bothering me for two months." Patchouli went on to explain about her nightmares to the monk, who took in every word without laughing at her silliness, even though the story sounded silly. She tried to include as many details as she could and why she believed it originated from Aokigahara Forest, going to the extent of showing the monk her folder of notes, finally ending it off with her most recent nightmare on the flight.

"Have you had any other dreams while sleeping on the way here?" the monk asked after she finished.

"I didn't dare to sleep after that."

"Hmm… this is… this is odd."

"What is odd, Miss… um…"

"Hijiri. Hijiri Byakuren is my name, but I allow people to address me directly by my name. I give this luxury even to the spirits that I try to pacify, too."

"You _can_ communicate with spirits?" Patchouli asked disbelievingly.

"I wouldn't go showing off, Miss…"

"'Patchy' would be fine, Byakuren."

"Yes, Patchy, I wouldn't show off. It's nothing something to be taken lightly. Now, you were talking about something calling for you in that forest?"

"Yes, Byakuren."

Byakuren shook her head in some sort of pity that confused the already confused Patchouli. "I see," she then nodded her head gravely. "So the signs have reached you, too."

"The 'signs'?"

* * *

The duo trekked their allocated route into Aokigahara Forest with strict instructions to only search for corpses of the suicidal and leave everything else in the forest untouched, in interests of preservation and respect for the dead. Byakuren led the way and worked with tying colored strings on trees to mark their path for an easy retreat trek.

Patchouli suspected as much, although she wondered why it was necessary when they were taking a commonly-used path. However, at that moment, she chose to gaze at the trees and nature's beauty. _This is what it really is like on the outside. One hundred and eleven years in a library sure has shut my eyes for too long. The air here, despite being tainted by decomposition of both nature and… something else, is fresh with the lush forest._

_But where is this 'thing' that has been calling for me?_ As if on cue, Byakuren turned around to her once she had finished tying a string.

"The signs," she repeated. "Of somebody calling you to this place."

"Uh… I guess so?" _Isn't that obvious? I mean, why else would I want to come here?_

"In all honesty, I should have kept you under guard till I return from the forest," Byakuren said in a stern tone, but the tone slowly gave way into something akin to sorrow, although her face showed no signs of crying. "I had an attendee who came to my temple two years ago. She was so desperate that I had to step in-"

"Who is she, and what is she so desperate for?"

"She gave us no name, but keep speaking of something from a forest calling out to her… death."

"That's… that's…"

"Exactly."

Without another word, Byakuren spun around quickly and continued on their track at a visibly faster pace. Patchouli strode to catch up with the sudden fast pace. "Wait, did she mention about-"

"'Gensokyo'?"

"How did you-"

"Know? She spoke to me about one Gensokyo too. When I first saw her, I could already sense something extremely haunting in her body. Something that was torn away from her. Almost like her soul was the victim of being torn apart."

"You won't believe me, but I suspect I might know her, even though I still don't know who she is."

"At first, it sounded more like a relationship problem, but as she rambled on, I begin to pick up some hints beyond a simple argument, something that might have been similar to yours."

Patchouli paused in her tracks as she began running through names in her mind, causing Byakuren to stop as well. "What is it?" the monk asked.

"You mentioned she was in a relationship?"

"Yes."

"Oh. That's because in the whole list of people that I know, none of them are married."

"She wasn't married."

"You sounded sure."

"Which is why I finally decided to come here," Byakuren nodded once. She then went on to tell Patchouli about how this particular attendee asked for spiritual help regarding similar nightmares to Patchouli's, and that she herself performed some rites to cleanse any evil on the attendee, although Byakuren herself wasn't exactly sure what sort of evil was clouding within the attendee.

The attendee came back two days later, drenched in blood, and seemed to have lost all traces of sanity. She was unarmed, but her presence, including her sudden display of what Byakuren likened to a demonic possession, horrified many of the other worshippers around, and in the interests of keeping her temple's name clean and herself venerable, Byakuren called in the police, who took her away, suspecting murder.

"I didn't hear from that girl afterwards, but one day, another attendee came to my temple," Byakuren said. "And asked for information about that girl, who happened to have made it to the news. I told him whatever I could, including the nightmares that brought the girl to my temple and he left after cursing loudly and mentioning these two particular words that chilled me to the bone."

"'Aokigahara Forest'?" Patchouli ventured a guess.

"He said he was looking for his girlfriend, who had disappeared from her home. An anonymous letter had arrived at his residence that day, along with a clipping of that particular news, and it told him to meet her 'at the quiet forest you first told me about when saw the horror movie'."

Patchouli, upon hearing that last sentence, suddenly realized something; there was almost no sounds of wild life coming from within the forest; it was absolutely quiet, except for the crunching of leaves underfoot and pairs, or groups, of other volunteers whispering among themselves. A shout or two would occur whenever someone found a corpse, but otherwise the silence was almost, ironically, deafening. "How long ago was that?"

"Just about a month after that incident."

"So you've come here to search for both of them?"

"That woman earlier who directed you to me? She was a victim of bullying due to her unnaturally loud voice, so much that it drove her near the point of desperation, and she had thought to end her life by suicide in this forest. Young Miss Kasodani came to me as her last resort, and admitted to me that if I hadn't been able to help her, she would have really traveled out here to join her family in the other side of life. Ever since, I thought it would be nice if I could come out and join the annual searches in hopes to dissuade the hopeless from suicide."

"And you both thought I was one of them," Patchouli smiled, even though Byakuren had her back on her as they continued on the tracks.

"And just two weeks ago, I finally recalled the incident at my temple, those two years ago."

"But the way you have told me how that incident happened, it didn't sound like it would end in suicide."

"That is true, which is why I'm here to appease my newly perked curiosity."

In the next two hours, with the sun still high, the pair came across three corpses, which they signaled to a nearby police team, who quickly bagged them and dragged them out of the forest after Byakuren whispered quick, according to what she had told them, Buddhist prayers for the dead while Patchouli stood nearby in silence in respect. Patchouli initially cringed when the police tried to remove the first body from a hangman's noose, resulting in the head being separated from the body due to extreme decomposition, but as they moved on to the third, she was convinced her nightmares about this forest was worse than maggot-infested bodies buried under heaps of dried leaves.

After the fifth body was dragged away, the pair was left alone again. The police team had instructed for them to continue on the marked tracks while they went back to the entrance of the forest.

"Byakuren?"

"Yes, my dear?"

"I still don't know what's haunting me. All we have seen so far is an endless sea of trees and leaves, not to mention a few bodies that we have come across along the way. I really need to find out what is calling out to both me and that attendee, why is it calling us to our deaths. I do not wish to have another night of sleep till I can resolve this."

Byakuren looked back; the last of the men in the police team had vanished beyond a curve in the tracks, blocked by intertwining branches. "I agree with you, I had actually wanted to step off the path and explore this forest. Anything could be hidden within, and we might find our answers in there, but we had to make sure nobody saw us, or we might be called back."

"And the police team is now out of sight."

"And we are out of sight of anybody else."

Both shared a smile before Byakuren retrieved three colored strings and tied a special pattern on a low tree branch, adding a small amulet of her own to the decoration. "Our way-point for return," she explained. "We won't go too far, just enough to be able to find our way back."

* * *

"Are you sure it's this way?" Patchouli huffed as she held a hand to a study trunk for support, panting from her hard travels through thick leaves and branches. "We both have maps and compasses, yet I don't remember coming through this way!"

Byakuren, while physically stronger than the weak librarian, herself was sweating from their bashing efforts through the green. "I told you not to venture out too much!"

Both of them looked up at the cracks in the leaves of high branches; the sky was already hot orange, signaling dusk, and that they had been lost in the forest for hours. Even with their continued shouts for help, nobody seemed to respond, or as Patchouli suspected, or have heard their cries for help. As it was in her most recent nightmare, Patchouli found out that their compasses were malfunctioning. _Something here is not wanting us to leave the forest… alive._

Byakuren swore audibly, grabbed Patchouli's hand and, based on her instincts, led them both on a path anew. With the monk leading in front, both of them covered bigger distances in a shorter time, but with reduced visibility, they were unaware of natural breaks in the ground, and suddenly Byakuren yelped as she fell into one such pitch-black hole.

Patchouli released her hand in time to prevent herself from falling in as well, but mentally cursed her reflex move. _I could have held on to her and pull her out!_ "Byakuren!" she shouted into the hole. When she got no response, she got down on all fours and extended her arm into the hole. "Byakuren! Grab my hand!"

No response, only a further darkening of the skies as the sun finally reaches sea level and began to set. Horrified, Patchouli tried to see how deep the hole was, but it was too dark and she gave one last attempt at rescuing Byakuren before she herself took off in the direction they were going in. Fearing further encounters with holes, coupled with the fact she was physically weak, Patchouli made slow progress as she desperately try to get somebody's attention.

A looped vine, unknown to her, was in her path; her ankle got caught in it and sent her sprawling to the ground. The leaves cushioned her fall, but she still shouted involuntarily in shock and tried to get back on her feet, but fell again as her ankle remained caught in the vines when she tried to take off.

It was almost dark, hastening her heartbeat in sheer fright. _This is almost like my recent nightmare coming true!_ A third attempt to run failed as she still could not free her ankle and fell face first to the forest floor again.

_Please let not be a skull in front of me,_ Patchouli pleaded in a small voice, squeezing her eyes shut as she turned her head up to look forward _Please let not be a skull in front of me… please…_

And like a nightmare becoming reality, when she opened her eyes, her mouth opened too and a sharp shrill escaped as a moss-covered skull stared back at her with two empty orbs in place of eyeballs. Thrashing wildly at her nightmare-came-true, she struggled to get up on her feet again, but her thrashing had her own arms and other leg getting entangled in the vines all around her.

"NO!" Patchouli cried out, tears flowing freely as she knew what would happen next, just like the nightmare. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE! SOMEBODY! SAVE ME, PLEASE!" Totally expecting the skull to float up next, she closed her eyes and willed herself to snap out of the nightmare, but it didn't work.

However, as much as luck would have it, when her eyes flew open, this time the skull remained at where it was, but the empty orbs still seemed to be staring at her intensely. _It's gonna float soon… it's gonna float soon… it's gonna…_

_Wait._

Patchouli stopped crying and instead cracked a small smile as a thought entered her mind. _It's just a skull, of course it would stare at me if I was facing it. What was I thinking?_ Relieved at her safety, she worked her limbs and somehow got free. Standing up, she brushed the leaves and twigs off as best as she could under reduced sunlight. _So why did I dream of being hauled up?_

On an instinct, she snapped her head up; all she could see were leaves covering the sky above her, preventing rays of sunlight from reaching the forest floor at her spot. It wasn't completely dark, as cracks in another area allowed some light in, and she saw **_it._**

A noose loaded with a person.

By that time, Patchouli had grown used to staring at corpses while helping the police team extract bodies from the forest and so she only swallowed hard as she tried to remember what happened in her nightmare. _I remembered being dragged up to that noose and getting my neck hung on it._

_Or was I even hung to my death?  
_

_Was whatever in this forest trying to tell me something?_

The tree that held the noose wasn't as high as she had thought to be, especially in her panic in her nightmare on the plane. The corpse was wearing a faded dress of a color Patchouli could not make out in the dim sunset rays, along with an inner shirt that was lighter in color. _Looks white to me._

Any remnants of flesh had long decomposed away, but enough of the hair remained and from her own judgment, this person was a female. _Or even a girl, since she's wearing school-going shoes and socks that somehow hasn't fallen off from her._

_So who is she?_

Daring to provoke the dead, Patchouli reached up, where she found out that she could only reach the waist level, and fumbled around the inside of the dress' side pocket that she had guessed would be there. Her fingers then encountered something smooth that wasn't part of the cloth made into the dress and she withdrew her hand, taking whatever that was inside with her. Under the dim light, she realized it was a folded sheet of thick paper, or probably sheets of paper, but couldn't make out anything that would have been printed or written on it.

_Come to us… come to us…_

"What was that?" Patchouli spun around at the sudden voice, then realized it was in her head. _That voice… it's from my nightmares!_

_Come to us, Patchouli… come to us…_

As the voice repeated itself, Patchouli began to find it familiar but, in her flustered mind, couldn't figure out who it was. "WAIT!" she called out to the forest. "WHERE?"

_Leave this world… come to us… We are all waiting for you…_

"WUAH!" Patchouli screamed as a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder. Spinning around in real fear of the forest, which had been forgotten after she had realized the skull wouldn't float, she saw a dark figure of a woman, only discernible from a rather large bulge on the chest level. "WHAT… WHAT ARE YOU?"

"Patch… Patchy, it's me," the woman, almost a silhouette by then, bent down and panted. "Bya… Byaku…kuren! I… I got out of.. that… hole!"

"How did you find me here?" Patchouli asked in relief.

"Heard your screams. Good… good news! A rescue team… dispatched and found… me… look!" Byakuren raised what would have been her hand and pointed behind them; four men with large search lights in their hands stood smiling. Ropes tied in a loop around their waists, visible with the aid of the search lights, were probably used to guide their way out of the forest.

Patchouli, under the glare of the torchlight, smiled… again. "Gents, one body up there."

"Come on," one of the men moved forward. "Let's get that one and get you two little girls out of here."

"I'm not a little girl!" Byakuren huffed angrily.

* * *

_He hasn't came back ever since he graduated. Not even to look for me._

_I'm so lonely._

_These new students here are horrible, almost all of them male. One of them tried to get too close to me in my room. Tackled him down to the ground before he gave up. I'm fearing for my safety at this moment._

_I stopped my cooking activities and kept mostly to myself now. Would take walks around the nearby woods just to pass time and relive some of the better moments in Gensokyo. Came down with a fever yesterday, but had no money for a doctor._

_One of the few girls in the dorm gave me some medicine to relieve my illness, but it's making me extremely weak; that guy came into my room again and I was almost powerless to stop him from advancing on me. Too weak to even scream, roll away or at least fight back…_

_You enjoying any of this yet, bitch?_

_Somehow, he stopped at simply groping me before leaving the room, laughing and telling his unseen friends outside my room about how he managed his 'dare'. As they left, so did my dignity; for the first time ever in my life, I cried. Cried because I'm totally lost. Cried because I'm now vulnerable to everything, unlike my old self. Cried because I'm now powerless to do anything for myself._

_Even when I felt better today, I had no one to speak to of my troubles. Another of the guys, probably not of the same group as the one last night, whatever, I don't really care, found me crying under the veranda while everyone else was in school, except for the homeless ones. He wanted to be friendly with me, telling me the same stuff that **he** told me those years ago, about how I could speak to him of my troubles, look for him for a comforting hand… I DON'T WANT THOSE ANYMORE!_

_Because he will leave me like **he** did after graduation!_

_I pushed him away, but he kept coming. Again, I felt no immediate danger to myself, and with my strength slowly returning, I could have beaten him up if I wanted to, but I stopped myself and settled at pushing him away at every turn. After about twenty times, it suddenly felt like a game and I found myself smiling each time I had to push him away._

_It made me forget about last night._

_He's gone back to the school for his afternoon classes, and I'm all alone again._

**_All alone. Like you were in your shrine._**

* * *

_And he's gone again._

_Two guys who took my heart with them when they graduated._

_While I'm stuck in this hellhole that hasn't gotten any renovations since my first day here, and probably even a decade before._

_I'm so sick of this._

_I'm leaving, and nobody will ever find me again._

**_How do you like if I joined you in death now, Reimu? At least I get to exact my revenge on you when we meet in afterlife._**

* * *

_Are you mocking me with that voice of yours?_

_Because I don't think I'm really going to join you. That act is for cowards, not for me. I shall soldier on with this vagrant life and prove to you that I can survive on my own, without your sympathy of a miko._

**_Get away from my head!_**

* * *

_Why?_

**_GET OUT OF MY HEAD!_**

* * *

**_I AM NOT GOING TO LEAVE THIS WORLD! JUST GET OUT OF MY HEAD NOW!_**

* * *

_You happy yet?_

_You damned happy now?_

_That old hag at the Myouren Temple couldn't stop you, huh? Well, so be it, Reimu. Since you want some company in the afterlife, here's two, freshly sacrificed for your dear 'holy cause'._

**_Just leave me alone NOW._**

* * *

_Okay okay, I'm following your directions, just stop it already!_

_Here I am, in the forest, but why this place? It stinks of death here._

**_Just what the hell do you want from me?_**

* * *

_My Lady! I'm… I'm sorry! Please pardon my rude remarks! I did not mean it!_

_Are you there? Are you also there now?_

_Yes… yes! I will definitely join you on the other side, my Lady! I'm sorry for delaying your summon, for I wanted to rid myself of all mortally possessions, including those who had broke my heart over the last nine years. I'm completely clean now, ready to accept your embrace!_

_I will leave this world and join you once I'm done, alright?_

_Preparations are ready, my Lady. I've laid the head of that man just below me, please accept this as proof of my readiness to join you, but do allow two tools to join me in my final journey-_

* * *

"Patchy?" Byakuren poked her head into the tent. They were back at the village near Aokigahara Forest and were allocated a tent to share for the night before the annual search ends the next morning, after being treated for any injuries they had sustained while lost in the forest. "It's definitely her."

"How do you know?" the librarian laid the letters down on her ground, turning off the torchlight she was loaned.

Byakuren muttered a small prayer before continuing. "Bless the young girl, I recognized those clothes. She must have been homeless, wearing those clothes for so long."

"She is," Patchouli nodded. "I'm reading these letters she wrote, which she claimed to have wanted to burn, but for some reasons did not. And I'm convinced that this person is somebody I know."

"Any names yet?"

"Not yet."

"Do continue with them and let me know if you find something," Byakuren said. "I'm going to wash up, then we can call it a night. Miss Kasodani will join us in the tent, if you don't mind."

"Not at all, Byakuren."

"Oh yes," she poked her head in again. "I just remembered something. One of the men stumbled across two scabbards. Perhaps you want to have a look at it?"

"I will, in a moment's time. This seems to be the last letter."

* * *

_…to you. You will recognize them, so they are not exactly worldly possessions. After all, I have served you for my existence in Gensokyo with these alongside with me. Please accept my humble request to have them both join me._

_Because without them, I'm not your complete servant. If my death in this world satisfies your conditions to return to you, then I shall not hesitate a moment longer._

**_Lady Yuyuko… here I come… please welcome your humble servant back to Gensokyo._**

* * *

_Konpaku Youmu_, Patchouli whispered the name as she finished the letter. _I feel terribly sorry for your hardships on Earth. At least you have experienced love, and had somebody to look after you for a while, despite the hard trials and tribulations of life._

_But… that voice earlier…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_It makes sense now._

_That voice, how could I have not recognized it earlier? It's definitely that one person whom I should have never forgotten about: Remilia Scarlet._

_Is she doing the same thing as Yuyuko did, calling me to my death to return home to Gensokyo?_

_Which is my true home now, Gensokyo or Europe?_

_My answer is… _Patchouli looked at the entrance to her tent, which was still open. She could walk out anytime and find her place in the forest and nobody would ever find her. Or she could just sleep in for the night and go back to Europe with her mystery solved in the following days, but will her nightmares reign chaos in her sleep again?

**A.N.: Aokigahara Forest first caught my attention in the album Retrospective in 53 Minutes by ZUN titled 'Legends of Aokigahara'. Renko (or Maribel, can't remember) had this bad feeling when they passed under the forest in the train system, and that sort of got me interested and I went on to research a little about Aokigahara Forest.**

**Also, an arranged version of the track was used in the doujin Concealed the Conclusion for the stage in Hakugyokurou, hence my decision to star Konpaku Youmu for this chapter. Apparently she had thought Reimu was the one calling out to her, but it turned out to be Yuyuko. So other than the last letter, the rest of them are still written to Reimu.  
**

**The run-down school dorm is an alternate universe version of the existing Kyoto University's Yoshida Dormitory (or so a fellow former on another site said), and does not, in any intended way, depict the actual school, dormitory or even the state itself.**

**Hijiri Byakuren and Kasodani Kyouko make guest star appearances in this chapter, as they appear only after the events of Subterranean Animism, so they don't really get their own chapters. I decided to put Patchy into this letter as I felt both non-Marisa magicians had letters that were totally out of line with the ones written by residents of the Yakumo Mansion, in order to fit them back in again. Whether I would do one for Alice remains to be seen.**

**Lastly, cliffhanger time! Will Patchy take her own life like Youmu did to return home? More importantly, did Youmu really managed to return to Gensokyo?**


	10. Failure

**Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.**

**Pre-story note: This story will feature a combination of letter, script and standard narration. As you read on, you will understand why it isn't really possible to write it in my usual way. Featured in this particular chapter is another game, but you do not require any knowledge to read this.**

**_Radio_**_: OPEN FIRE!_

*Air raid sirens began blaring*

**_Radio_**_: GO! ATTACK!_

Three soldiers dashed away from the water's edge amid the hail of gunfire, rifles in hand. Two friendly tanks followed behind them to provide armored support, but one of them was knocked out shortly and exploded into a ball of flame.

**_Radio_**_: The battle has already begun! Everyone get out alive!_

The trio immediately caught up with another of their squad near an anti-tank stake on the beach, and the four of them begin their assault as per the shore-landing mission.

The three soldiers knew each other; they each had their own codenames, namely 'Iron', 'Ice' and 'Falcon' (**A.N.: And will be known as such throughout the chapter**). The last soldier, the one who they met up with, was known as 'Flower'. The last soldier might have been a total stranger, but in times of war, if two soldiers wore the same uniform, they would still be comrades in arms. The four of them then fell into a frontal assault formation and each took cover behind a stake.

An enemy artillery fired a shell from inland; it exploded harmlessly a distance away from cover.

**_Falcon_**_: Shoot! Shoot that skeleton! It has a gun!_

**_Ice_**_: This war is about us against skeletons, of course you will be shooting skeletons!_

**_Iron_**_: Shut up! Two incoming!_

Before any of them could fire their weapons, both skeletons were already dispatched with one shot to the head each.

**_Iron_**_: Nice shot, Flower!_

Four skeletons appeared from the sides and fired a shot at them.

**_Radio_**_: Put the gun barrel away from the screen to create a shield._

Flower reacted first and raised a shield to deflect the incoming shot, before shooting the skeleton in front, again in the head. The other three raised their shields and shot their own targets shortly after. While they were doing so, Flower was already shooting at enemy soldier skeletons further down the beach. A bell ranged and Flower's rank had been promoted from "Private E-1" to "Private First Class".

**_Falcon_**_: Wow! How did you get you promotion so quickly?_

**_Ice_**_: That's simple. Flower was shooting at more targets in the distance, so there would be more points. And with higher amount of points, rank promotion comes quickly._

**_Falcon_**_: We better catch up, or we three guys are going to be beaten flat in this game by a lady!_

* * *

_They gave me weird looks when I joined them for the game. Of course, I had just simply reached from behind them and inserted a coin into the credit slot to signify my intention to join the three of them in a game of 'Worldcombat'. I don't know what actually made them stare at me; being a lady who wants to play 'Worldcombat' or because I barged into a private game and taking my seat on the last available tall chair on the right._

_Very gentlemanly of them, though, to help me onto my seat. I guess these boys aren't as bad as the ones I've seen in Gensokyo, though._

_'Worldcombat' is a modern military shooter game for four players, telling a story about a war in which humans fought a war against an opposing army of skeletons with modern weaponry and armaments, including tanks, helicopters and aircraft. Yukari told me you long knew of Earth's existence, so I doubt these would be alien to you._

_This game apparently utilizes a crisis sighting, where most of the bullets are harmless, yet the ones that will hit will be larger and obvious. Thanks to danmaku battles in Gensokyo, naturally, such a game shouldn't be a problem as I will be able to read the game screen and react quickly, unlike my Outer World 'comrades'._

_So far, I think I like this game._

_I'm beginning to liken this as a real-life scenario where, one day, Yukari will reopen the dimension to Gensokyo and us, being the soldiers, fighting against Usutho's army in a bid to recapture Gensokyo and restore our lives back again. Our first location will definitely be the near the Sanzu River, near the boundary between life and death._

_Shore-landing operation, huh. While the banks of the river isn't exactly a beachhead, a war has to start somewhere. When we escaped from Gensokyo twelve years ago, it was only possible, even with Yukari's massive spellwork, due to the fact that the weakest link between boundaries existed near the river. We will need a path back into Gensokyo, and I find no better fitting location than to start back at where we held our last stand._

_This will be where our first struggle to recapture Gensokyo will take place; it will be a bloody battle to gain our first foothold back home. Some of us will fall and join you in the afterlife while the rest will have to carry their burden and charge onwards._

_No turning back._

* * *

**_Radio_**_: No turning back!_

Flower led the squad through the obstacles on the beach and soon encountered an enemy armored vehicle, accompanied by two skeleton soldiers.

**_Radio_**_: Aim for the vehicle!_

The machinegun on the tank was painted a transparent red and began pinging on the screen while being labeled as the weak point. The four players concentrated their firepower, attempting to hit the weakpoint. Ice scored the first hit on the tiny weak spot, and a colored bar appeared beside the weak point, showing players the remaining durability of the enemy, which required four more shots on the weak point to destroy the tank.

Ice, after missing nineteen out of the twenty shots he had per magazine in the rifle, tried to continue firing on an empty magazine, but the game began prompting him to reload his rifle by lowering his gun from the screen.

One of the skeletons on the side fired a burst at the players, and the bullets appeared larger than before, signaling a hit if the targeted player did not raise a shield to deflect the shots. At that moment, the shots were aimed at Ice, whose shield had been raised as he had to reload his gun.

**_Ice_**_: Too damned close!_

**_Iron_**_: Keep a watch out!_

* * *

_This is exactly like danmaku; only amateurs forgot how much ammunition he has left. If you run out of shots in a danmaku battle, you lose. If you lose concentration and get hit by a stray bullet, you lose too. In a real war, getting hit by a bullet can be fatal. Remilia had been shot five years ago and she did not survive it._

_Our upcoming war in Gensokyo is going to be this way, except it wouldn't simply be a spellcard duel: it will be the duel of our lives. If we lose a single duel, we won't survive, not without the Spellcard Rules in effect. Yukari herself had been aware of the loss of the boundaries when you died, and I believe she made the right decision to prevent more deaths in case some of us tried to fight back._

_Yukari held me back when I tried to join the defenders of Mayohiga during our last stand. She knew what would have happened to me if she hadn't stop me. Everybody knew I have the strength to defeat Usutho easily, but apparently the Boundary Youkai knew something that I did not. For once, I was grateful for her actions, but that was also the first time I faltered in the face of danger._

_Not this time._

_Not anymore._

_I will lead us this time. Even if I get hit during the battle, I will not fall back. I will tear and shred every limb, wing and feather of the hell ravens that get in my way. I will light the path to victory and end our nightmare. We will win this._

_WE WILL WIN THE WAR!_

* * *

Flower snapped two shots at the nearby skeletons before landing four consecutive hits on the tank, destroying it and earning another promotion for herself. The other three players nodded their approval as the game scene moved on.

The rest of the stage moved smoothly, apart from a rocket attack by one of the skeletons, which caught Falcon off guard and so lost one life from his pool of three, losing the rank he had just gained from an earlier promotion and being bumped back down to Private E-1. Flower's rank was the highest at Staff Sergeant.

As they defeated the last standing skeleton, the scene changed to show an attack helicopter taking off from the ground, a warning alarm tolling in the background.

**_Radio_:**_ And another!_

The screen showed another transport helicopter approaching the beach.

**_Radio_**_: They're going to attack!_

The stage boss battle began with the attack helicopter showering them with bullets from above while flying towards them at high speeds. None of the players were hit during that first phase of attack. The screen quickly switched over to the second helicopter, which had the passenger doors already opened. A rocket soldier fired down at them, but Iron managed to destroy the projectile before it could hit them.

The helicopter's cockpit was the highlighted weak point; all players aimed their guns for that and fired.

**_Radio_**_: SGT Ice defeated the enemy!_

A medal was immediately awarded to Ice and added some points to his score. However, the boss battle had not ended and it switched back to the remaining attack helicopter. Without suffering another hit, the team defeated the boss when Falcon managed to score a hit on the weak point. The stage ended with a cinematic showing the destroyed helicopter crashing onto the beach before exploding into flames.

**_Radio_**_: THE OPERATION WAS A SUCCESS!_

The boys cheered and gave each other high fives, while Flower simply smiled while looking at the score screen with a victory tune playing in the background, her gun sitting comfortably on her lap. While both Falcon and Ice won a medal each for defeating the two bosses, Flower's rank remained the highest and was proclaimed as the leader, hence being awarded an extra life, much to the amazement of her three comrades.

* * *

_The joy of a victory in battle._

_However, we cannot rest. Winning the battle at the banks of the river is only the beginning. If my comrades think it was the end of the war, they will be sorely disappointed. When Usutho attacked with her hell raven army, she conquered every part of Gensokyo. We will do the same and recapture the entire world back from her._

_We will have to decide where to go next, and Mayohiga is the only way forward._

_Mayohiga is conveniently located in one corner, along the Road of Liminality. Unlike past wars fought in the Outer World, we have the advantage of flight in Gensokyo, despite the air being tainted. The long Chuu Road can be easily covered in a matter of time, and we will descend upon the abandoned village and continue our battle from there._

_It is like a resurrection, ironically. It has been said that the dead will pass through this Road before crossing the River, and we will do the same, except that we are headed in the opposite direction, back to life._

_Recapturing Mayohiga is essential; there was a reason why Yukari had chose to stay there. Maintaining the borders near the Sanzu River couldn't have been easier if she was elsewhere. After all, she is the Youkai of the Boundaries. Whatever the real reasons are, they aren't mine to know._

_All I ever wanted was to go home._

_I still want to go home._

_Will the day come where I can step into my home once again and declare "home, sweet home"?_

* * *

**_Radio_**_: An explanation of your next mission._

A tank icon above the part of the map labeled "Town" began glowing, signifying the location of the second stage of the game. The opening cinematic of the stage showed the squadron storming a town occupied by the enemy, complete with helicopter support from the air.

**_Radio_**_: We are going in. Please provide support from the air._

Being only the second stage, the difficulty ramp from the previous mission was barely noticeable, even when the squad encountered an armored vehicle, just like they had met one during the shore mission. Iron landed successive hits on the vehicle's weak point while the others cleared up other skeletons near the vehicle, but Ice managed to snag the last hit and destroyed the armored vehicle.

The enemies, throughout the stage, had taken heavy cover behind debris and in houses on all sides, and were harder to hit without proper aiming. Most of the shots missed and hit said debris, but even then, the players managed to breeze through the stage. At some point during the mission, the supporting helicopter crashed into the town's square, spawning more enemies who had been responsible for the attack.

* * *

_Mayohiga, despite being abandoned, is, after all, still a village. The many houses provide good cover for our enemies. I have never been to Mayohiga for all my life, but it should be pretty secluded, based on the map._

_After all, nobody had really seen Yukari's mansion before, hadn't they?_

_From what I have been watching on the television all these years, urban warfare can be lethal; the enemy could simply be just around the corner and eliminate an unsuspecting group from a hidden or well-covered position. However, this is going to be very different once we step foot back into Gensokyo._

_Hide all they want, we will obliterate them all. The more they hide in those crummy huts and shacks, the easier to deal with them. Hell ravens are still birds in some way; they require shelter of sorts to roost. All we need to do is to torch those buildings up and we can almost end the battle as soon as we start it. Yukari's mansion is going to be the tough one; I don't think she will want to return to a ruined home._

* * *

**_Radio_**_: Tanks have appeared in the town! Will our armament be enough?_

The boss for the stage were two tanks which had suddenly rolled out of hiding into the town square, where they players had finally reached. The top hatches of both tanks flipped open and skeleton on each appeared, firing the machinegun at the invaders. The cinematic zoomed in slightly to where the tanks' barrels were mounted on before painting that area as the weak point.

Machinegun fire, in addition to the tanks' shells and other skeletons milling around, pressed the players hard and forced them to stay behind their shields most of the time.

**_Falcon_**_: This game is so fake! How can rifles destroy tanks?_

**_Iron_**_: You aim for the weak point, dumb ass!_

**_Falcon_**_: The guide here, beside the start button, spoke of alternate weapons, such as the machinegun and rocket launcher. Aren't they going to appear for this battle?_

As soon as Falcon said that, Flower picked off a distant rocket enemy and a power-up weapon 'Rocket Launcher" was spawned in its place.

**_Iron_**_: There you have it._

Falcon fired a shot at the power-up and was instantly granted three rockets to use. His first shot hit the tank on the side, but it totally obliterated the tank, hence being awarded a medal, but shortly after, before he could take aim at the second tank, the tank fired a shot at him. He was too late in raising the shield and so was hit.

Having no more lives, he had to insert another credit to continue the game. Much to the players' dismay, the rocket launcher upgrade was lost when Falcon dropped to zero remaining lives, hence they had to resort to firing at the weak point again. Flower led the team, once again, to victory with the last shot, earning herself the medal and ending the mission with a high rank of Brigadier General.

Another round of congratulating between the four players as they waited for the next stage to begin.

* * *

_If I guessed it right, they would have found Yukari's mansion too inhospitable for them; Yukari has a bad habit of leaving her belongings all over the place. Bonus points for that since they probably left the mansion in a hurry just before our exodus. Taking out the other buildings and engaging the rest of the occupants in old fashion danmaku will be easy, especially with our combined strength._

_Take a strand of grass, twist it and it will break into halves easily, but weave and bind them together, the feat will require much, much more effort to achieve. Together we will prevail against all odds. We do not need rocket launchers or modern cannons to win this war; we are who we are, Gensokyo has managed to remain pacified without modern interference._

_The nuclear fission underground was the result of attempts to modernize Gensokyo, albeit too late a symptom of failure for us. Of course, nuclear fission alone, as far as I understand with my years of reading in the Outer World, couldn't have caused that catastrophe, but anything goes in Gensokyo._

_Anything goes._

_Including us taking it back._

* * *

The next two stages ramped up the game's difficulty noticeably, causing many hits to be taken and, ultimately, game over till they fed another coin to continue the game. Flower may seem to be the strongest player among the four, despite being a stranger, but it was obvious that it was also her first time playing the game.

The trio had also admitted, at some point, to her about having played the game a couple times before, but had never made it past certain parts of the game, and had came together as a group in hopes to complete the game for their first time. Through the stages, while Flower had her own dark reveries regarding Gensokyo while keeping a faux smile, the guys apparently were enjoying themselves despite the poor play they were putting in comparison to Flower.

It was truly a sight of teamwork, as they kept encouraging each other and, at other times, laughed whenever one of them was hit by the enemy. Credits kept flying into the game machine as they recklessly played through the game, and at one point, even wondered if they should give up. However, with Flower's strong gameplay, it kept them going in invisible effort to prevent themselves from losing out to a female player.

Flower's experience on the fourth mission, a night mission in the jungle, reminded her about the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

* * *

_These young punks' spirits are as inexhaustible as the stubborn spirit of an immortal unwilling to submit to Death. I really do admire their tenacious spirit, because it reminds me of you. I wasn't there during that Night (I did curse the endless night, for it did me no good even as a youkai), but I was told one of your greatest expeditions in an incident took place in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost._

_From Mayohiga, the way we should go is still straightforward; either over the sheer mountains or through the bamboo. As youkai, a flight through the night means nothing, but our enemies, too, are youkai. Rumors have it that a land journey through the bamboo forest is almost impossible without the guide of the rabbits living there or the aid of Mokou; it was a simple thing to have her lead us through the land._

_Naturally, the bamboo provides good cover against the aerial attacks that the hell ravens may take, and yet at the same time, Eirin may be able to access Eientei again and, hopefully, find Houraisen Kaguya there, waiting for some sort of link up to combat against the enemy. Having the three immortals on our side in the front lines will greatly help our efforts, but I'm worried about the existing rivalry between Mokou and the Lunarian duo._

* * *

**_Radio_**_: Enemy reinforcements coming from the air!_

A boss cinematic showed a helicopter unloading four different-looking skeletons, complete with gear and weapons that gave the impression of commandos, charging towards the players, who were near a trench network. Taking up equally spaced positions on the opposing side, the battle began with all four commandos performing a continuous barrage of gunfire at all four players.

**_Iron_**_: Whoa! How are we supposed to attack them?_

Ice lowered his shield, attempting to fight back during the lethal hail, but was immediately hit. That alone discouraged any further attempts to fight back. However, after a few moments, the commandos apparently had run out of ammunition and began scampering around their side of the trench, attacking with irregular bursts of rifle and rockets.

Knowing that the rockets would take a while to hit them, Flower lowered her shield and shot the projectile in midair, but was caught unaware by some shots that had been well hidden behind the rocket. Slightly irritated by the unfair hit that she had sustained, she began to play defensively for that battle, keeping a sharp lookout for any movements in the dark and dense foreground.

**_Radio_**_: Lookout! Grenade!_

All four players heard the warning of an incoming grenade, but could not see it at first.

**_Ice_**_: There! On the bottom right side of the trench!_

Without waiting for the others to take action, he shot the grenade, which exploded harmlessly in mid flight and nicked the one commando skeleton that had somehow sneaked towards their position in the trench and attempted a close-range grenade attack. Both Falcon and Iron then trained their shots on one of the commandos while Flower began tracking another that was taking cover between trees in the background.

A commando suddenly popped out, again in front of them, and fired a rocket at point-blank range; Iron took the hit, but was avenged when Flower quickly changed targets and shot the crafty skeleton in the head.

Seemingly programmed by the game, the two remaining skeletons took up their first positions again and began a repeat of their first attack of continuous fire. However, this time, they only managed to focus on two of the players and so allowed the two flanking players, Iron and Flower, to take deliberately-slow aim at the head of their targets and pulled their triggers simultaneously.

**_Radio_**_: THE OPERATION WAS A SUCCESS!_

**_Falcon_**_: Man, that was a tough stage. How many credits do you think it will take us to complete the game?_

**_Iron_**_: As much as it is needed. I intend to complete this today._

**_Falcon_**_: How much money did you bring for this?_

**_Iron_**_: Enough._

**_Ice_**_: Why don't you save that money up and treat all of us to yakiniku tonight?_

Again, the boys broke out in laughter, with Flower herself also laughing softly at the silly-sounding joke.

* * *

_If only both Houraisen and Fujiwara can bury their millennia-long hatchet beneath them, this will have been the pleasant outcome at home. Mokou had refused to stay with us in the Yakumo Mansion, despite Yukari pleading with her to stay, because of the ongoing rivalry and instead left Kochiya Sanae with us, who was extremely shy and quiet._

_For some reasons, she seemed to fear my presence in the household, but gradually accepted me as one of the elders of the house. To be honest, I have nothing against her, even if she seemed to try to stay away from me, even during dinner. I definitely will need the Moriya Shrine Maiden's help in my next mission: The Youkai Mountain._

* * *

**_Radio_**_: An explanation of your next mission._

**_Ice:_**_ Look, it's that helicopter icon again, this time on the Mountain stage._

**_Falcon_**_: The helicopter boss was easy, we can definitely do this again._

**_Ice_**_: *Smacks Falcon in the back of his head* Don't be an idiot! No game developers will put an easy stage in the middle of the game!_

**_Radio_**_: OPEN FIRE! *air raid alarms toll in the background*_

**_Iron_**_: Shut up you two, the stage is about to start._

**_Radio_**_: The Howitzers are in the mountains. Let's go!_

As the ingame chatter had said, the mission was about smashing heavy artillery pieces in the mountain ranges, also part of whatever military strategy the human army was taking.

Yet another mission that was spotted with nasty sneak attacks, the players met with fierce resistances as they fought through the mountain path where their objective laid: two howitzer cannons that were harmless to the players, assuming to be firing at some off-screen targets of high priority. The skeletons in this particular stage appeared mostly from a far distance, making them a harder target to hit. To add on to the handicap, the skeletons were firing their weapons as they slowly charged towards the players, forcing them to alternately stay in cover while trying to snipe down the small targets.

At the base of one mountain, which looked more of a hill than mountain, the screen turned upwards and showed one of their targets. A small skeleton with seemingly perfect accuracy kept showering the players with shots that would hit an unshielded player, and all four of them spent roughly ten seconds trying to shoot him down. Another two appeared when the irritating target fell, adding more frustration as they tried to repeat their earlier success.

However, the skeletons did their job: diverting attention away from the main target, the howitzer cannons. The screen turned away, scoring irritated grunts and colorful languages, mostly, and surprisingly, coming from Flower, and switched to a view of the sky, showing four helicopters flying by. During the distraction, two knife-wielding enemies popped out at point-blank range in an attempt to slash the players, but were shot without much difficulty.

As the four of them thought they had definitely missed their first target, a cinematic suddenly showed the four soldiers dashing up the mountain path and arriving at their first intended target, which was then placed right in front of them, allowing the players to destroy it without any difficulty. No medals were awarded, however.

A few moments later they managed to destroy the second howitzer and managed to fend off a small band of charging skeletons before being warned of the stage bosses' arrival.

**_Radio_**_: Enemy choppers! Will we be alright?_

* * *

_I don't know how far in my wild fantasy will this really happen in our actual battle, but I began to worry about some of those destructive… things those kappa had left at the base of the mountain. The way Nitori had described about some of the security features she had wanted to add in the Yakumo Mansion those years ago, I think it's highly possible that such armaments might exist on the Mountain._

_You are probably wondering, by now, if I'm still living in the dream world, which exist…-ed, or the real world, which exists. The dream world used to be the real world for us, and now the Outer World, or Earth, is. I still don't know which is the one I should be calling 'home'._

_Yukari ever mentioned once, but only once, about us 'not supposing to have existed here'. Are we products of somebody's dreams in the Dreamworld? Are we just stage puppets of Alice Margatroid's Play of Life? Who are we? Youkai like myself don't exist on our own; we manifest from somewhere._

_I have to know if I'm real or just a concocted creature of fantasy, like my plans for taking back Genso-_

* * *

As the last survivor of the players, Flower finally got hit by a stray bullet from a short burst of machinegun fire from the overhead helicopters while being distracted by her thoughts and so lost the game for all of them. The guys looked at each other, hesitating on whether to continue the game from there, as they had spent a substantial amount of money that day.

Seeing that nobody else was going to continue the game, Flower decided that she had enough for the day too. The score screen appeared and they found out that their combined score made it into the high score list. The students, firmly believing that they were only able to make it so far because of Flower's strong play, gave her the honor of entering her desired five-character name for high-score entry.

Exchanging friendly handshakes with the boys, she reached down beneath her seat and retrieved a pair of mechanical tools, adjusted her hat and slowly slid off her chair.

**_Ice_**_: Are you going to be okay, miss?_

"I will be fine, thank you," Flower replied.

_How real are my plans? Will they ever happen?_

_Never._

_Because…_

_Even before the war has begun, I've already lost half of the war. The war of my will._

_To fight._

One of the students quickly offered to support her while another helped position her mechanical tools. With a nod of gratefulness, she began moving towards the exit door.

_ I'm a failure, a cripple._

_What more can I do for my beloved Gensokyo?_

She waited for the doors to fully slide open before leaning forward and, using her crutches, limped her way home. Back in the game center, the students, after picking up their bags and replacing the chairs and guns properly, looked at Worldcombat's game screen again, just as the high score ranking was scrolling. As it neared the top, the trio finally saw their score:

6th Place – X,XXX,XX9 – YUUKA Team

* * *

**A.N.: I was planning for Yuuka to complete the game successfully, but realized I'm running out of words to put in for the letter segment. Writer's block at full fury!**

**I'm not very fond of crossing games with Touhou, but a recent playthrough of this game in a local arcade really inspired Kazami Yuuka's story, so it's hard to try something else. In fact, subtly, all of my previous entries were inspirations from games. Some might be obvious, others aren't.**

**In this take, I gave Yuuka a very mild dose of sadism and ended her off with the 'slow but strong' theme. Not a nice way to end the U.S.C.'s majestic career, but hell, even the strongest break down after a while! I was deciding if she would be living alone, but decided to throw her into the rehab for U.S.C.s known as Yakumo Mansion (okay I'm joking!)**

**The number '9' in the high score isn't a reference to Cirno, but gamers will know that it is a counter for the number of continues you have used for that particular run. A 9 denotes 'nine continues and beyond', which doesn't speak very well of your skills.**

**The map of Gensokyo I based my story on is an unofficial one that seems to be 'the most accurate with lots of research'. You can search for this map if you want.  
**


End file.
